VISUALIZATION OF INTERNAL DEFECTS IN PLATE-TYPE NUCLEAR FUEL BY USING NONCONTACT OPTICAL INTERFEROMETRY

An imaging technique to visualize the internal defects in a plate-type nuclear fuel specimen was developed by using an active optical interferometer for a nondestructive quality inspection. A periodic thermal wave having a sinusoidal intensity pattern induced a periodical strain variation for the specimen. The varying strain image was acquired using an optical laser interferometer. The strain distribution over the internal defects will be distorted in an acquired strain image because a part of the thermal wave will be reflected from these defects during propagation. In this paper, internal defects were efficiently visualized by sequentially accumulating the extracted defect components. The experimental results confirmed that the developed visualization system can be a valuable tool to detect the internal defects in plate-type nuclear fuel.