Instrument capabilities in support of INEL reactors

The Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) has several thermal reactors dedicated to reactor safety research. For these research programs, it has been necessary to develop special purpose instrumentation that would survive the harsh reactor environment while gathering information on the complex phenomena of interest. Some of these instruments which have general application to other research projects with similar harsh environments include: specially developed thermocouples capable of measuring nuclear fuel and fuel rod cladding temperatures, densitometers capable of measuring density changes in a wide range of flow channel sizes, and both intrusive and nonintrusive methods of measuring fluid velocity and mass flow rate. A description of the instruments and their specific applications is presented