Innovative Sensor for Material Ageing and Radiation Testing – I_SMART

Nuclear instrumentation still based mainly on safe, efficient but conservative technologies. Present and future competitiveness goes through the optimization of accurate and predictive knowledge of nuclear reactor core behavior and radiation monitoring in nuclear media. Furthermore, regarding general aspect of nuclear energy as well as nuclear fuel cycle advanced instrumentation and measurement methods are also the key of competitiveness and adding value of innovation technologies.
These considerations mean that we may take into account new detector/sensor technologies coupled with ad hoc electronic devices, signal analysis and acquisition and hence advanced measurement technologies which should increase performances and so satisfied these crucial needs.
The new generation of Material Testing Research Reactors -MTR’s- like the International Jules Horowitz Reactor under construction in CEA Cadarache center will need a complete new generation of on-line instrumentation and innovative advanced measurement methodologies.
This is necessary for the following reasons:
- Due to a huge progress of simulation sciences, the experimental benchmarks have to be more instrumented than in the past especially with real-time analysis devices.
- Large technological breakthrough which arise these last years gives opportunity to design and implement high performances sensors in a very harsh environment such as in the core of a nuclear reactor.
- A more efficient instrumentation will allow an optimization of the reactor operation and efficiency and hence safety and lifetime duration so consequently having a positive economical impact on the operating cost.
The nuclear safety will also be reinforced using on-line instrumentation and accurate associated measurement methods.
On-line selective and simultaneous detection of both fast and thermal neutron flux and high energy gamma flux is by now a real instrumentation and measurement challenge mainly for:
- nuclear experimental and power reactor typically for direct nuclear aging measurements
- nuclear fuel cycle (spent fuel, radioactive wastes management)
- Safeguards
- Homeland Security.
- Medical sciences (radiotherapy, BNCT :Boron Neutron Capture Therapy)
Hence, need for innovative advanced smart detection system(s) and hence, present I_SMART project innovative challenges.
To the best of our knowledge, there is no system available for radiation monitoring at elevated temperatures (up to 600 °C) and the timing for launching a focused I_SMART European project toward solving this problem is excellent in terms of actuality, possible impact on conquering new markets and relative readiness of silicon carbide (SiC) technology that our consortium suggests to use as a platform to build the system satisfying demands of radiation hardness and high temperature operation. Thus, the main objective of this proposal is to demonstrate a new type of intelligent system for monitoring the radiation levels using semiconducting SiC; I_SMART system.