Several Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) programs, such as the Fuel Cycle Research
and Development (FCRD), Advanced Reactor Concepts (ARC), Light Water Reactor Sustainability, and Next Generation
Nuclear Power Plants (NGNP), are investigating new fuels, materials, and inspection paradigms for advanced and existing
reactors. A key objective of such programs is to understand the performance of these fuels and materials during irradiation.
In DOE-NE’s FCRD program, ultrasonic based technology was identified as a key approach that should be pursued to
obtain the high-fidelity, high-accuracy data required to characterize the behavior and performance of new candidate fuels
and structural materials during irradiation testing. The radiation, high temperatures, and pressure can limit the available
tools and characterization methods. In this work piezoelectric transducers capable of making these measurements are
developed. Specifically, three piezoelectric sensors (Bismuth Titanate, Aluminum Nitride, and Zinc Oxide) are tested in
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Research reactor to a fast neutron fluence of 8.65x1020 nf/cm2. It is demonstrated
that Bismuth Titanate is capable of transduction up to 5 x1020 nf/cm2, Zinc Oxide is capable of transduction up to at least
6.27 x1020 nf/cm2
, and Aluminum Nitride is capable of transduction up to at least 8.65x x1020 nf/cm2.