Sensor Survives Reactor-Level Heat and Radiation, Paving the Way for Real-Time Monitoring

Generating nuclear power takes a lot of energy—extreme heat, pressure, and radiation—that every part of a reactor must withstand every time. Naturally, engineering the perfect device is a difficult task, but researchers continue to discover surprising ways to advance nuclear technology, the latest of which involves a tiny chip with ultra-low performance.

in recent times releaseUniversity of Maine researchers have announced new microelectronic sensors that withstand both the radiation levels and extreme temperatures of nuclear reactor cores. At the same time, sensors capture real-time operational data, giving engineers and operators invaluable insight into reactor activity.

“Since many advanced reactors currently under development operate at these temperatures, there is a high demand on sensors to monitor them,” Mauricio Pereira da Cunha, the project’s principal investigator, said in the release. “Successful development of these sensors will address and alleviate technological barriers that currently prevent the rollout of advanced nuclear reactors.”

Firing up the heat

The sensor is intended to reside inside the reactor core of a nuclear fission reactor, which splits two heavy molecules apart to generate large amounts of energy. Specifically, researchers hope to install sensors Advanced high-temperature furnacewhich run on helium gas and contain ceramic materials to generate nuclear power more efficiently and safely.

However, these reactors reach higher temperatures than existing sensors can withstand, because their advantages “come with the high thermal efficiency achieved at high temperatures,” the researchers explained.

The team, on the other hand, had two decades of experience refining similar sensors. That inspired them to spend the last two years developing and testing a sensor powerful enough for next-generation reactors — and, while they were at it, miniaturizing the sensor to widen its range of applications.

Small chip, big impact

For the project, the team developed seven sensors, all of which were tested at Ohio State University’s Nuclear Reactor Laboratory. Report by the Department of Energy’s Office of Atomic Energy. Each sensor was 100 nanometers thick – roughly 1,000 times diluted than a strand of hair—and carries a platinum-based alloy electrode packed with an alumina cap.

Impressively, all seven sensors “remained functional” and “showed no signs of damage” despite five days of blasting at the reactor’s peak power of about 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit (800 degrees Celsius), the report explained. Preliminary analyzes also indicated that the sensors were also resilient against radiation.

“In addition to extreme temperatures, we are now simultaneously exposing these sensors to intense, penetrating levels of nuclear radiation,” Luc Doucet, senior research scientist on the project, said in the release. “It adds a whole new dimension in terms of what kind of sensor materials can survive and be functional in these conditions.”

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