Progress towards developing neutron tolerant magnetostrictive and piezoelectric transducers

Current generation light water reactors (LWRs), sodium cooled fast reactors (SFRs), small modular reactors (SMRs), and next generation nuclear plants (NGNPs) provide harsh environments in and near the core that can severely test material performance and limit their operational life. To address this issue, several Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) research programs are evaluating the long duration radiation performance of fuels and materials. In To reduce the amount of Material and Test Reactor (MTR) irradiations required, DOE is also funding development of enhanced instrumentation that will be able to obtain data, with unprecedented accuracy and resolution, that are required to validate new multi-scale multiphysics modeling tools . It is not feasible to obtain such data with the current state of instrumentation technology. To address this need, PSU and collaborators have started an experiment to test the potential for utilizing ultrasonic instruments in-pile. Ultrasonic sensors must be resistant to high neutron flux, high gamma radiation, and high temperature. PSU and collaborators have designed, fabricated, and started to irradiate piezoelectric and magnetostrictive transducers designed to perform in such harsh environments. Three piezoelectric transducers were fabricated with aluminum nitride, zinc oxide, and bismuth titanate as the active element. The transducers are coupled kovar and aluminum waveguides of which pulse-echo ultrasonic measurements are made in-situ. Two magnetostrictive transducers were fabricated with Remendur and Arnokrome as the active elements. These devices will be pulsed and monitored in-situ. (1) Selection of candidate sensor materials as well as optimization of test assembly parameters (2) High temperature benchmark testing and (3) initial data from the irradiation will be reported.