Swelling behavior detection of irradiated U-10Zr alloy fuel using indirect neutron radiography

It is hopeful that fusion-fission hybrid energy system will become an effective approach to achieve long-term sustainable development of fission energy. U-10Zr alloy (which means the mass ratio of Zr is 10%) fuel is the key material of subcritical blanket for fusion-fission hybrid energy system which the irradiation performance need to be considered. Indirect neutron radiography is used to detect the irradiated U-10Zr alloy because of the high residual dose in this paper. Different burnup samples (0.1%, 0.3%, 0.5% and 0.7%) have been tested with a special indirect neutron radiography device at CMRR (China Mianyang Research Reactor). The resolution of the device is better than 50 µm and the quantitative analysis of swelling behaviors was carried out. The results show that the swelling behaviors relate well to burnup character which can be detected accurately by indirect neutron radiography.