Evaluation of Low Dose Silicon Carbide Temperature Monitors

The Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) is the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy's only designated nuclear energy user facility. Its mission is to provide nuclear energy researchers access to world-class capabilities and to facilitate the advancement of nuclear science and technology. This mission is supported by providing access to state-of-the-art experimental irradiation testing, postirradiation examination facilities, and high-performance computing capabilities, as well as technical and scientific assistance for the design and execution of projects. As part of an NSUF project, low dose silicon carbide monitors were irradiated in the Belgian Reactor 2 and were then evaluated both at the SCK•CEN and at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) High Temperature Test Laboratory to determine their peak temperature achieved during irradiation. The technical significance of this work was that the monitors were irradiated to a dose that was significantly less than recommended in published literature. This article will discuss the evaluation process, the irradiation test, and the performance of the low dose silicon carbide temperature monitors.