Evaluation of computed tomography of mock uranium fuel rods at the Advanced Photon Source

This paper discusses a multi-year effort to evaluate the utility of computed tomography at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) as a tool for non-destructive evaluation of uranium based fuel rods. The majority of the data presented is on mock material made with depleted uranium which mimics the x-ray attenuation characteristics of fuel rods while allowing for simpler handling. A range of data is presented including full thickness (5mm diameter) fuel rodlets, reduced thickness (1.8mm) sintering test samples, and pre/post irradiation samples (< 1mm thick). This data was taken on both a white beam (bending magnet) beamline and a high energy, monochromatic beamline. This data shows the utility of a synchrotron type source in the evaluation of manufacturing defects (pre-irradiation) and lays out the case for in situ CT of fuel pellet sintering. In addition data is shown from small post-irradiation samples and a case is made for postirradiation CT of larger samples. (author)