Design and Simulation of Gamma Spectrometry Experiments in the CROCUS Reactor

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 environment, allowing for validation experiments of computed spectra, dose estimates, reactor noise and prompt to delayed gamma ratios. This data then contributes to models, code validation and photo atomic nuclear data evaluation. In order to contribute to aforementioned experimental data, gamma detection capabilities are being added to the CROCUS reactor facility. The CROCUS reactor is a two-zone, uranium-fueled light water moderated facility operated by the Laboratory for Reactor Physics and Systems Behaviour (LRS) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). With a maximum power of 100 W, it is a zero power reactor used for teaching and research, most recently for intrinsic and induced neutron noise studies. For future gamma detection applications in the CROCUS reactor, an array of four detectors - two large 5 '' x10 '' Bismuth Germanate (BGO) and two smaller Cerium Bromide (CeBr3) scintillators - was acquired. The BGO detectors are to be arbitrarily positioned in the core reflector and out of the vessel for measurements at arbitrary distances. The CeBr3 detectors on the other hand are small enough to be set in the guide tubes of the control rods for in-core measurements. We present a study of the neutron and gamma flux in the core and reflector using the MCNP 6.2 and Serpent 2 Monte Carlo codes for coupled neutron and photon transport criticality calculations. More specifically, we investigate and compare predicted spectra as well as reactivity worth of different envisioned experimental setups. We further predict pulse height spectra as well as doses to the crystals with and without cadmium shielding to estimate allowable reactor powers with respect to detector radiation hardness. The results serve as basis for calibration and aid in the design and regulatory approval of the experiments.

In-core dosimetry for the validation of neutron spectra in the CROCUS reactor

Pavel Frajtag, Yifeng Jiang, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Axel Guy Marie Laureau, Andreas Pautz

The present article describes the preliminary validation study of simulated in-core and reflector n eutron spectra in preparation of oncoming experimental programs in the zero-power reactor CROCUS at EPFL. For this purpose, a set of activation foils were irradiated at three characteristic positions in the CROCUS reactor, and the subsequent activities were analyzed via gamma spectrometry. The experimental setup was then modeled with the Monte Carlo neutron transport code Serpent2 and associated with an analysis tool to include the effect of the reactor power history during experiments. The comparison of calculated and measured reaction rates (C/E) indicates a general consistency (at 2 sigma) between calculated and measured spectra. However, offsets of C/E values were observed in (n,gamma) reactions, up to 18% for In-115 and 8% for Cu-63 dosimeters. This could be caused by an unexpected isotopic composition, uncertainties in nuclear data, or the spectrometry analysis. In addition, a 100-groups spectrum unfolding was performed using the experimentally determined reaction rates and the Serpent2 spectra as the prior knowledge. The unfolded spectra were mainly adjusted in the thermal and fast ranges, while few modifications were made in the epithermal region due to the low contribution of epithermal neutrons in activation processes. Moreover, within energy groups where the capture reactions show resonant behavior, flux depletion (up to 38% as compared to the prior spectra) is observed due to the absence of self-shielding effect in the unfolding process. For this purpose, an unfolding method based on energy groups weighting is developed and tested.

E D P SCIENCES2020

Delayed gamma fraction determination in the zero power reactor CROCUS

Pavel Frajtag, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Tom Mager, Oskari Ville Pakari, Andreas Pautz

Gamma rays are an inextricable part of a nuclear reactor's radiation field, and as such require characterization for dose rate estimations required for the radiation protection of personnel, material choices, and the design of nuclear facilities. Most commonplace radiation transport codes used for shielding calculations only included the prompt neutron induced component of the emitted gamma rays. The relative amount of gamma rays that are emitted from delayed processes - the delayed gamma fraction - amount to a significant contribution, e.g. in a typical zero power reactor at steady state is estimated to be roughly a third. Accurate predictions of gamma fields thus require an estimation of the delayed content in order to meaningfully contribute. As a consequence, recent code developments also include delayed gamma sources and require validation data. The CROCUS zero power research reactor at EPFL is part of the NEA IRPhE and has therefore been characterized for benchmark quality experiments. In order to provide the means for delayed gamma validation, a dedicated experimental campaign was conducted in the CROCUS reactor using its newly developed gamma detection capabilities based on scintillators. In this paper we present the experimental determination of the delayed gamma fraction in CROCUS using in-core neutron and gamma detectors in a benchmark reactor configuration. A consistent and flexibly applicable methodology on how to estimate the delayed gamma fraction in zero power reactors has hitherto not existed - we herein present a general experimental setup and analysis technique that can be applied to other facilities. We found that the build-up time of relevant short lived delayed gamma emitters is likely attributed to the activation of the aluminium cladding of the fuel. Using a CeBr3 scintillator in the control rod position of the CROCUS core, we determined a delayed gamma fraction of (30.6 +/- 0.6)%.

EDP SCIENCES S A2021

Experimental and numerical study of stochastic branching noise in nuclear reactors

Oskari Ville Pakari

Noise analysis applied to nuclear reactor physics is a powerful tool to investigate a reactor's kinetic parameters, and more generally underlying physical processes determining core behavior. The kinetic parameters are the coefficients of simplified time-dependent neutron population equations, the so-called point kinetics equations. Experimentally determined kinetic parameters aid to validate codes and to potentially evaluate nuclear data. This thesis focuses on improvements to the kinetic parameter and uncertainty quantification, the experimental techniques, and the direct simulation of noise experiments. In particular, the notion of spatial effects, i.e. effects that render point kinetics assumptions inaccurate for noise measurements, was investigated. This was achieved by drawing on experiments conducted in the zero power reactor CROCUS. New detection instrumentation for noise experiments was developed for CROCUS, namely current mode amplifiers for neutron detectors to allow for higher detection efficiency and thus precision; and a scintillation-based gamma detection array, called LEAF, to enable the study of gamma noise. A set of reference neutron and gamma noise experiments were conducted to exemplify an improved method of parameter and uncertainty estimation based on bootstrapping. It lead to a full uncertainty budget showing a relative uncertainty of 3.6% and 1.3% on the prompt decay constant with neutron and gamma noise, respectively. Moreover, reporting of full distributions of kinetic parameters was shown to be required in order to provide an accurate representation of the experimental results. Gamma noise was shown to be superior in terms of precision by a factor of at least two compared to neutron noise when determining the prompt decay constant. To study spatial effects and the spatial extent of the noise field of CROCUS, a set of experiments with varying detector locations, reactivity, and particle type were conducted. The neutron noise field study showed that measurements are limited to the immediate proximity of the core, and that CROCUS is reliably modeled as a point kinetic reactor for static configurations. Nonetheless, a systematic trend was shown when comparing to code predictions, pointing to a weak spatial effect biasing neutron noise measurements at a distance. The observable gamma noise field using high efficiency detectors was shown to extend beyond neutron noise limits, enabling ex-vessel measurements. The prompt decay constant was determined at about 0.9 meters to the core center with comparable accuracy to that of gamma in-core reference experiments using less-efficient detectors. Gamma correlations were be observed outside of the reactor cavity in front of an experimental channel, enabling a prompt decay constant determination at 7 meters to the core center. To complement the experimental investigation and to study the underlying physics, a simulation methodology to estimate noise responses was developed. Specifically, the explicit simulation of noise experiments using analog Monte Carlo transport coupled to a fission model was studied. An established code with an existing fission library coupling, TRIPOLI-4, was used as reference. In addition, a newly developed coupling of a fission library to Serpent 2 allowed for code-to-code comparison. The full methodology, verification, and validation to the aforementioned CROCUS experiments is presented.