Automated inspection of sintered uranium fuel pellets

Abstract

A method of applying high-speed, non-destructive testing technologies to the inspection process of UO2 (uranium dioxide) fuel pellets is presented. The scanning process examines the surface of each pellet for correct manufacturing parameters. In this work, three inspection technologies have been investigated: laser scanning of surface roughness, 2D laser scanning of surface cross-section, and CCD camera inspection of surface integrity. The complete circumferential surface of each pellet is inspected using a combination of these three technologies. Both static and non-static test results on pseudo pellets are presented. The results show that the proposed technologies are capable of performing the necessary inspections.