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Nuclear fuel quality assurance: Proceedings of a seminar in Oslo
Journal of Nuclear Materials<68 (1977) 127 0 North-Holland Publishing Company
Ion Implantation,
Sputtering and their Applications
P.D. Townsend, J.C. Kelly and N.E.W. Hartley (Academic Press, 1976,333 pp.) E 13.00
tions. The countertheme at the beginning is a virtuous account of how British Nuclear Fuels manage “total quality assurance”, echoed at the end by a similar account from GE. BNF and GE do not seem to be liable to what a Kjeller critic denotes as “the vendor’s argument that procedures are so extensive and bulky that filing cabinet space is exhausted at the utility’s house”. A separate group of papers deals with regulatory requirements of the safety agencies. The middle theme - or the rich filling of the sandwich, according to metaphorical taste - is a large group of papers concerned with techniques for assessing oxide, cladding and assembled fuel, with a particularly interesting group on neutron radiography. A separate section covers HTR fuels. The hair-raising claim is made in the first paper that fuel problems (i.e. downtime caused by imperfect fuel) has cost US plants 8-10% of availability and that one plant alone lost E26 million in this way. They cite “four big surprises so far”: hydriding, densification, collapse of cans, pellet-clad interaction. None of these, it is claimed, was anticipated during design reviews. There is no allegation that public safety gave cause for concern, only that the financial effectiveness of the power-stations was impaired. Each section is provided with a rapporteur’s summary, an admirable device. In the final summary, L.E. Tripp of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission makes it clear that a buyer will get best value if he is an informed buyer. Elsewhere it is made clear that a buyer may have to push very hard to secure the process information which alone will enable him to arrange really effective quality assurance. One other point which is made firmly by BNF is the importance of quality auditing, which I take to mean sudden, random and surprise inspection of the inspectors. Every scientist who works on nuclear fuels would do well to examine this volume, if only to discover the ancient truth that the fact that something can be done is no assurance that it will be done.
This book is a general introduction and survey for nonspecialists. It deals equally with fundamental principles, instrumentation and applications (actual and potential). The text begins with a substantial account of the factors governing ion ranges and ion channeling in lattices. A rather cursory chapter on radiation damage (which in itself is too elementary to concern readers of this journal) is followed by an account of diffusion: the use of ion implantation and Rutherford back-scattering in combination is persuasively exemplified as a means of measuring small diffusivities. Sputtering is dealt with in terms of yields and profiles, and a fairly thorough account is given of the principal models. Ion-beam equipment is next described in some specific detail. The last three chapters deal with applications other than in the semiconductor industry: the topics include compositional analysis including depth profiles, surface profiling, integrated optics, electrochemistry, magnetic bubbles, friction and wear and finishes up with 8 pages on simulation studies of damage in reactor materials. Extensive numerical tables are included as an appendix. This volume is comprehensive, very clear, and permits the wood to be clearly perceived through the numerous trees.
R.W. Cahn
Nuclear Fuel Quality Assurance:
Proceedings of a Seminar in Oslo, May 1976 (IAEA, Vienna, 1976,480 pp.) $32.00
This intriguing publication has rondo form. The first theme, repeated with modulations at the end, is an agitato melody from staff of Scandpower A/S, Kjeller, Oslo, who were also the hosts. These authors expressed their deep scepticism about the present value of quality assurance in view of the alleged resistance of suppliers of fuels to the timely provision of information about minutiae of manufacturing procedures, combined with the hesitancy of buyers as to the cost-effectiveness of quality assurance and indeed the difficulties some of them are alleged to find in understanding their legal obliga-
R.W. Cahn
127
Ion Implantation,
Sputtering and their Applications
P.D. Townsend, J.C. Kelly and N.E.W. Hartley (Academic Press, 1976,333 pp.) E 13.00
tions. The countertheme at the beginning is a virtuous account of how British Nuclear Fuels manage “total quality assurance”, echoed at the end by a similar account from GE. BNF and GE do not seem to be liable to what a Kjeller critic denotes as “the vendor’s argument that procedures are so extensive and bulky that filing cabinet space is exhausted at the utility’s house”. A separate group of papers deals with regulatory requirements of the safety agencies. The middle theme - or the rich filling of the sandwich, according to metaphorical taste - is a large group of papers concerned with techniques for assessing oxide, cladding and assembled fuel, with a particularly interesting group on neutron radiography. A separate section covers HTR fuels. The hair-raising claim is made in the first paper that fuel problems (i.e. downtime caused by imperfect fuel) has cost US plants 8-10% of availability and that one plant alone lost E26 million in this way. They cite “four big surprises so far”: hydriding, densification, collapse of cans, pellet-clad interaction. None of these, it is claimed, was anticipated during design reviews. There is no allegation that public safety gave cause for concern, only that the financial effectiveness of the power-stations was impaired. Each section is provided with a rapporteur’s summary, an admirable device. In the final summary, L.E. Tripp of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission makes it clear that a buyer will get best value if he is an informed buyer. Elsewhere it is made clear that a buyer may have to push very hard to secure the process information which alone will enable him to arrange really effective quality assurance. One other point which is made firmly by BNF is the importance of quality auditing, which I take to mean sudden, random and surprise inspection of the inspectors. Every scientist who works on nuclear fuels would do well to examine this volume, if only to discover the ancient truth that the fact that something can be done is no assurance that it will be done.
This book is a general introduction and survey for nonspecialists. It deals equally with fundamental principles, instrumentation and applications (actual and potential). The text begins with a substantial account of the factors governing ion ranges and ion channeling in lattices. A rather cursory chapter on radiation damage (which in itself is too elementary to concern readers of this journal) is followed by an account of diffusion: the use of ion implantation and Rutherford back-scattering in combination is persuasively exemplified as a means of measuring small diffusivities. Sputtering is dealt with in terms of yields and profiles, and a fairly thorough account is given of the principal models. Ion-beam equipment is next described in some specific detail. The last three chapters deal with applications other than in the semiconductor industry: the topics include compositional analysis including depth profiles, surface profiling, integrated optics, electrochemistry, magnetic bubbles, friction and wear and finishes up with 8 pages on simulation studies of damage in reactor materials. Extensive numerical tables are included as an appendix. This volume is comprehensive, very clear, and permits the wood to be clearly perceived through the numerous trees.
R.W. Cahn
Nuclear Fuel Quality Assurance:
Proceedings of a Seminar in Oslo, May 1976 (IAEA, Vienna, 1976,480 pp.) $32.00
This intriguing publication has rondo form. The first theme, repeated with modulations at the end, is an agitato melody from staff of Scandpower A/S, Kjeller, Oslo, who were also the hosts. These authors expressed their deep scepticism about the present value of quality assurance in view of the alleged resistance of suppliers of fuels to the timely provision of information about minutiae of manufacturing procedures, combined with the hesitancy of buyers as to the cost-effectiveness of quality assurance and indeed the difficulties some of them are alleged to find in understanding their legal obliga-
R.W. Cahn
127