Automated fuel pellet inspection system
John C. Lichauer, Larry J. Zana · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1992
In the nuclear fuels industry, a great deal of effort goes into ensuring that quality materials are produced. Of these materials, none receives more attention than the uranium-oxide nuclear fuel pellets. These cylindrically shaped pellets (approx. 1/2 inch L X 1/2 inch D) are carefully produced and then meticulously inspected for various defects (e.g., cracks, chips, etc.). The inspection process is designed to remove any defective pellets from each lot, assuring the end user a reliable, predictable, and safe product. The current (manual) inspection process is laborious and subjective in nature. The inspector also receives prolonged exposure to low-level radiation. For these reasons, automated inspection of nuclear fuel pellets has long been a goal of the industry. However, it is not a simple task, due to the many material handling and image processing challenges required to inspect pellets at production rates (greater than five per second). This paper describes an automated nuclear fuel pellet inspection system that has successfully met these challenges. Built around a set of modular, high-speed, pipelined image processing hardware, it inspects pellets at rates of up to seven pellets per second. Recent tests have shown better than 97% detection rates with less than 2% false reject rates. Image processing algorithms and solutions to design challenges are described.© (1992) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.