Publications by Fanny Vitullo | EPFL Graph Search

CORTEX experiments – Part I: Modulation campaigns in AKR-2 & CROCUS for the validation of neutron noise codes

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Mathieu Hursin, Oskari Ville Pakari, Pavel Frajtag, Nicolas Weiss, Thomas Jean-François Ligonnet, Axel Guy Marie Laureau, Adolfo Rais, Fanny Vitullo

We present the experimental campaigns – namely, three per facility – carried out between 2018 and 2021 in the AKR–2 and CROCUS zero power reactors within the framework of the Horizon 2020 European project CORTEX. Their purpose was to produce high-quality a ...

2025

Measurement of the Prompt Neutron Decay Constant in a Zero-Power Reactor Using a Novel 3D Detector System

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Mathieu Hursin, Oskari Ville Pakari, Fanny Vitullo

Analyzing neutron noise in zero-power reactors provides information about integral parameters, such as the prompt decay constant

\alpha

alpha. This information can be used to validate codes that predict said parameters, or time-dependent behavior, part ...

TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC2025

Millimetric fuel rod displacements: an experimental study of the impact on local thermal neutron flux in the CROCUS reactor

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Oskari Ville Pakari, Pavel Frajtag, Thomas Jean-François Ligonnet, Fanny Vitullo, Daniel Godat

The impact on the thermal neutron flux due to a few mm displacement of a single fuel rod in the periphery lattice of the CROCUS zero-power reactor was measured. These high-resolution experiments were carried out using a miniature neutron detector positione ...

American Nuclear Society2022

Miniature and Minimalistic Neutron Detectors for Online High-Resolution Experiments in the Zero-Power Reactor CROCUS

Fanny Vitullo

The continuous strive for more efficient and reliable nuclear power plants is leading to increasing complexity in the design and operations of reactors. As a consequence, comprehensive analyses are required to assess the reactor's safety during normal and ...

EPFL2022

Highly localized azimuthal measurements in the CROCUS reactor towards the validaiton of high-fidelity neutronics codes

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Pavel Frajtag, Fanny Vitullo

Highly localized in-core measurements are necessary for the validation of neutron transport calculations with high spatial resolution. In the present work, a miniature neutron detector developed at EPFL in collaboration with PSI was used to carry out a set ...

2021

High resolution measurements with miniature neutron scintillators in the SUR-100 zero power reactor

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Fanny Vitullo

Three 1-mm(3) miniature fiber-coupled scintillators have been used to perform cm-wise resolution measurements of the thermal neutron flux within experimental channels of the SUR-100 facility, a zero power thermal reactor operated by the Institute of Nuclea ...

E D P SCIENCES2021

Design of a 150-miniature detectors 3D core-mapping system for the CROCUS reactor

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Pavel Frajtag, Fanny Vitullo

The present article provides an overview of the design of a three-dimensional (3D) full-core mapping system for the CROCUS reactor, operated at the Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. The system is composed of 149 miniature neutro ...

E D P SCIENCES2021

Local and high distance neutron and gamma measurements of fuel rods oscillation experiments

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Oskari Ville Pakari, Pavel Frajtag, Fanny Vitullo

We report in the present article on the successful observation using noise analysis of the lateral oscillation of one fuel rod by +/- 2.5 mm around nominal at 0.1 Hz frequency, using an mm(3) miniature neutron scintillator at the rod level, and a BGO gamma ...

E D P SCIENCES2021

Design and Simulation of Gamma Spectrometry Experiments in the CROCUS Reactor

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Mathieu Hursin, Oskari Ville Pakari, Fanny Vitullo

Gamma rays in nuclear reactors, arising either from fission or decay processes, significantly contribute to the heating and dose of the reactor components. Zero power research reactors offer the possibility to measure gamma rays in a purely neutronic envir ...

E D P SCIENCES2020

Statistical Burnup Distribution of Moving Pebbles in the High-Temperature Reactor HTR-PM

Andreas Pautz, Jiri Krepel, Fanny Vitullo, Horst-Michael Prasser

In the pebble-bed high-temperature reactor under construction in China, called the HTR-PM, the spherical fuel elements continuously flow downward in the cylindrical core. The burnup of each pebble is checked at the core outlet and, according to the achieve ...

ASME2020