General Electric Company

Alfred J Zeits

Bruce J Kaiser

Fred C Schoenig

Robert O Canada

An apparatus using X-ray fluorescence for gauging the thickness of a zirconium barrier layer on the interior surface of a zirconium alloy nuclear fuel tube is disclosed. A gamma radiation source coaxially positioned in the tube emits gamma rays which excite K-alpha and K-beta Sn X-ray in the zirconium alloy substrate. Fluorescent X-rays passing back through the barrier layer are detected by an X-ray detector coaxially positioned in the tube. Attenuation of the exciting gamma rays and the fluorescent X-rays by the barrier layer is used to determine barrier layer thickness.

Fuel tube barrier gauge

A method and apparatus for analyzing combined secondary and primary materials by directing primary radiation onto said material whereby secondary radiation is generated. A detector senses the secondary radiation as a transport carries the materials into the vicinity of primary radiation and produces signals to be resolved into secondary and primary material source components, establishing a secondary to primary material ratio and indicating the composition of the material.

Growing community of inventors

Wilmington, NC, United States of America

Alfred J Zeits