Application of silicon carbide temperature monitors in 49-2 swimming-pool test reactor

Abstract

High purity SiC crystal was used as a passive monitor to measure neutron irradiation temperature in the 49-2 research reactor. The SiC monitors were irradiated with fast neutrons at elevated temperatures to 3.2 × 1020 n/cm2. The isochronal and isothermal annealing behaviors of the irradiated SiC were investigated by x-ray diffraction and four-point probe techniques. Invisible point defects and defect clusters are found to be the dominating defect types in the neutron-irradiated SiC. The amount of defect recovery in SiC reaches a maximum value after isothermal annealing for 30 min. Based on the annealing temperature dependences of both lattice swelling and material resistivity, the irradiation temperature of the SiC monitors is determined to be ∼410 °C, which is much higher than the thermocouple temperature of 275 °C recorded during neutron irradiation. The possible reasons for the difference are carefully discussed.