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Neutron imaging
(2016)
Neutron imaging methods are appropriate to investigate hydrogen distributions in several metallic systems. The large total neutron cross section of hydrogen compared to those of elements or isotopes, respectively, in usual structural materials like steels or zirconium alloys allows the detection even of small amounts of hydrogen in such materials. The dependence of the total macroscopic neutron cross section of the sample or component on the hydrogen concentration can be determined experimentally by means of calibration specimens with known hydrogen concentrations. Such a calibration allows for a full quantitative determination of the local hydrogen concentration with a spatial resolution better than 20 μm. Because neutron radiography is fast and non-destructive, in situ investigations of time-dependent processes like hydrogen absorption and release or hydrogen bulk diffusion can be performed. This chapter gives an introduction into the main neutron imaging methods, radiography and tomography, and gives as examples results of neutron imaging investigations of hydrogen in different steels and in zirconium alloys,respectively.
In the framework of the SARNET-2 WP5.1 the QUENCH-DEBRIS test was conducted as the 17th severe accident test using the QUENCH facility at KIT to investigate the formation and coolability of a prototypic debris bed. The test scenario was defined by pre-test calculations using the MELCOR code. This code was used also for post-test analysis. The test bundle with length of about 2 m contains the hafnium shroud tube and 12 heated peripheral rods with claddings made of hafnium. Hafnium was chosen because of its much higher melting temperature and the about one order of magnitude lower oxidation rate compared to zirconium. The claddings of the inner nine rods were made from Zry-4. They were filled with pre-fragmented zirconia pellets. The test started with an oxidation phase of 20 h at peek cladding temperature about 1800 K to reach complete oxidation of the Zry-4 claddings over a height of 500 mm. The temperatures expected from the pre-test simulation fitted well the experimentally observed evolution of the bundle conditions.
The possibly surviving inner Zry-4 claddings were destroyed by the application of an axial mechanical force resulting in material relocation and formation of a heterogeneous debris bed consisting of segmented pellets and larger cladding tube fragments at the grid spacer 2 (350 mm elevation) and in a smaller amount at grid spacer 3 (1050 mm elevation). The so destroyed bundle was quenched with 10 g/s water. The evaporation rate generally showed an increasing trend during the reflood, except at the time of water penetration through the debris bed at spacer 2 when stagnation was observed. All peripheral hafnium claddings survived the whole test. During the oxidation phase about 100 g hydrogen was released. The time dependence of the hydrogen release predicted in the pre-test calculations fits well the measured one. The post-test examinations comprise videoscope inspections, high energy X-ray-tomography and metallographic investigations of the debris bed.