We have developed a technique for quantitative analysis of microstructures (e.g., dislocations and irradiation defect aggregates) of activated and nuclear-burned specimens in the context of the Week Beam Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope (WB-STEM) method, which boasts extremely high measurement accuracy as a quantitative analysis method for lattice defects.
In combination with a dedicated heated sample holder with fully automated temperature measurement and current control in a cartridge-type heating furnace, changes in dislocation microstructure can be dynamically measured in-situ along with a highly reliable temperature history.

Conventional TEM methods require expertise in reciprocal space and dislocation theory, but our WB-STEM method is equipped with automatic analysis software for film thickness measurement and dislocation loop feature extraction, making it possible to analyze irradiation defects easily and precisely.

• Since its design, the WB-STEM method has been developed for implementation and on-site repair in radiation controlled areas where nuclear materials are handled, with special aperture and diffraction disc selection equipment, control and analysis software.
• WB-STEM accepts irradiation defect analysis of activated specimens from all over the world, including RPV monitoring specimens from European reactors and neutron-irradiated materials from US research reactors.
• It is also used to analyze the properties of iron-containing nuclear fuel simulated debris in decommissioning projects.

We support research organizations that currently use transmission electron microscopy to observe microstructures to introduce the WB-STEM method by special modification. We will instruct researchers who have no experience using transmission electron microscopy in the procedure for dislocation analysis.

• Electron microscopy
• Dislocation
• in-situ
• defects
• Nuclear materials
• Fuel