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An instrumented creep testing capability is being developed for specimens irradiated in pressurized water reactor coolant conditions at the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR). A test rig has been developed such that samples will be subjected to stresses up to 350 MPa at temperatures up to 370°C in pile. Initial Idaho National Laboratory (INL) efforts to develop this creep testing capability for the ATR are summarized. In addition to providing an overview of in-pile creep test capabilities available at other test reactors, this paper reports efforts by the INL to evaluate a prototype test rig in an autoclave at INL's High Temperature Test Laboratory. Data from autoclave tests with Type 304 stainless steel and copper specimens are reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over 50 years of nuclear fuels and materials irradiation testing has led to many countries developing significant improvements in instrumentation to monitor physical parameters and to control the test conditions in material test reactors (MTRs). Recently, there is increased interest to irradiate new materials and reactor fuels for advanced pressurized water reactors and Gen-IV reactor systems, such as sodium-cooled fast reactors, very high temperature reactors, supercritical water-cooled reactors, and gas-cooled fast reactors. This review paper documents the current state of instrumentation technologies in MTRs in the world and summarizes ongoing research efforts to deploy new sensors. As described in this paper, a wide range of sensors is available to measure key parameters of interest during fuels and materials irradiations in MTRs. Ongoing development efforts focus on providing MTR users a wider range of parameter measurements with smaller, higher accuracy sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]