Enhanced In-Pile Instrumentation at the Advanced Test Reactor

Many of the sensors deployed at materials and test reactors cannot withstand the high flux/high temperature test conditions often requested by users at U.S. test reactors, such as the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). To address this issue, an instrumentation development effort was initiated as part of the ATR National Scientific User Facility (NSUF) in 2007 to support the development and deployment of enhanced in-pile sensors. This paper reports results from this effort. Specifically, this paper identifies the types of sensors currently available to support in-pile irradiations and those sensors currently available to ATR users. Accomplishments from new sensor technology deployment efforts are highlighted by describing new temperature and thermal conductivity sensors now available to ATR users. Efforts to deploy enhanced in-pile sensors for detecting elongation and real-time flux detectors are also reported, and recently-initiated research to evaluate the viability of advanced technologies to provide enhanced accuracy for measuring key parameters during irradiation testing are noted.