An Innovative Acoustic Sensor for In-Pile Fission Gas Composition Measurements

In this article we propose a new method able to determine the fission gas composition using in situ ultrasonic waves measurements. To do so an acoustic resonator was connected to a fuel rodlet, in order to perform speed of sound measurements of gas mixture (Helium and fission gases) inside the plenum. By using a dedicated signal processing the peaks due to resonant frequencies inside the gas mixture were successfully extracted from the output signal. From these data, the variations of helium and fission gas molar fraction were calculated using an adapted virial state equation. It will be proved that these data provide important information about the kinetics of gas release and about the effects of high neutron and gamma irradiation on piezoceramic sensors.