Thermoelectric Power Platform for In-Situ Monitoring of Nuclear Spent Fuel

be used to monitor the environmental stress factors associated with degradation and corrosion inside the storage system. Temperature, humidity, radiation, and gas pressure sensors are some of the measurement devices that can be integrated into the dry storage system. With spent fuel assemblies securely sealed inside, it is difficult to feed power and signal lines into the storage containers without jeopardizing the integrity of the storage system over long periods of time. There are two major issues for integrating internal sensors. One is signal transmission, as sensor data need to be read out for analysis. The other is supplying power for sensors and signal transmission. There is currently no commercially available, isolated wireless power supply technology implemented for sealed dry spent fuel storage for the nuclear power industry, and if power is supplied using a feed- through, the port threatens the long-term integrity of the storage system. The difficulty of implementing sealed power generating platforms in dry storage casks are twofold: 1. high temperature environment, and 2. high radiation environment. A radiation tolerant heat harvesting thermoelectric power generation platform can overcome these two issues. The paper presents the results of demonstrating the feasibility of using Bi2Te3 thermoelectric material to supply power inside sealed dry spent fuel storage systems for fuel monitoring. The thermal environment analysis performed in this study showed that a sufficient temperature differential exists inside the sealed spent fuel container over the entire operating duration of the dry storage system and beyond. Based on commercial Bi2Te3 power module characteristics, the temperature differential inside the container can sustain the delivery of milliwatts of power to effectively power potential environmental sensors and wireless communication hardware over the operational life of the storage system. Accelerated radiation testing experiments in nuclear reactor facilities demonstrated no degradation in power output of the Bi2Te3 modules for extended dose accumulation, which significantly enhances the feasibility of using a thermoelectric power platform for spent fuel storage system monitoring.