Neutron radiography facility at the Hanford Engineering Development Laboratory

A 250 kW TRIGA reactor has recently been installed at the Hanford Engineering Development Laboratory (HEDL) to provide a neutron radiography facility for examinations of LMFBR fuel and other core components. The facility includes a vertical neutron beam for unirradiated materials and provisions for a horizontal beam which will be used for irradiated materials. Design of the horizontal beam is still being developed, whereas the vertical collimator equipment has been installed and is being applied and evaluated. Before the HEDL neutron radiography facility became available, a total of (1700) unirradiated driver fuel pins had been sent to the General Electric-Vallecitos Center for neutron radiography. The ability to provide valuable information concerning central voids within the fuel, inclusions between fuel pellet and clad, and fissile density variations caused by chemical reactions during manufacture, was demonstrated. These examinations served as a control on quality and also provided baseline data for future evaluations after FFTF irradiation. The paper describes the TRIGA reactor and gives details of the collimator and ancillary components installed for inspection of unirradiated fuel. Results of a testing program to determine neutron beam characteristics and identify radiographic quality of the images are discussed. Examples of production radiography and possible future applications are presented