DEVELOPMENT OF A HIGH SENSITIVITY XENON LEAK DETECTOR

RADIOISOTOPE THERMOELECTRIC GENERATORS (RTGS) ARE COMMONLY USED AS POWER SOURCES FOR REMOTE ENVIRONMENTS. THESE UNITS USE XENON AS A HEAT TRANSFER AGENT. IT IS ALSO NECESSARY TO FILL THE RTGS WITH HELIUM TO A 5% CONCENTRATION LEVEL, SINCE THE HELIUM SERVES AS A LEAK DETECTION AGENT. HOWEVER, HELIUM ALSO CAUSES A 5% TO 10% DECREASE IN THE ELECTRICAL EFFICIENCY OF THE RTG. IT IS THEREFORE DESIRABLE TO ELIMINATE HELIUM FROM THE RTG. ADA TECHNOLOGIES, INC. PROPOSES TO DEVELOP AN ANALYTICAL SYSTEM THAT WILL OPERATE AS A XENON LEAK DETECTOR IN ORDER TO MEASURE LEAKS FROM AN RTG WITHOUT THE USE OF HELIUM. THE LEAK DETECTION SYSTEM WILL MEASURE XENON LEAKING OUT OF AN RTG AT A RATE OF 10(-8) CM(3)/SEC. THE LEAK DETECTIONSYSTEM WILL BE RUGGED ENOUGH TO BE OPERATED IN HIGH-TEMPERATURE ENVIRONMENTS, AND WILL HOLD ITS CALIBRATIONIN NORMAL OPERATION. THE PHASE I WORK WILL FOCUS ON THE DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT, AND TESTING OF THE PROOF-OF-CONCEPT XENON DETECTOR UNDER CONDITIONS WHICH WILL BE USED TO LEAK-TEST AN RTG. PHASE II WILL INVOLVE THE DESIGN, FABRICATION, AND EXTENSIVE TESTING OF THE PROTOTYPE XENON LEAK DETECTION SYSTEM AS A GENERAL MONITOR FOR GROSS SYSTEM LEAKS FROM AN EXPERIMENTAL RTG AND AS A PROBE FOR PINPOINTING THE LOCATION OF LEAKS ON THE RTG.