Miniature Fission Chambers Calibration in Pulse Mode: Interlaboratory Comparison at the SCK·CEN BR1 and CEA CALIBAN Reactors

Miniature fission chambers are suited tools for instrumenting experimental reactors, allowing online and in-core neutron measurements of quantities such as fission rates or reactor power. A new set of such detectors was produced by CEA to be used during the next experimental program at the E facility starting in 2013. Some of these detectors will be employed in pulse mode for absolute measurements, thus requiring calibration. The calibration factor is expressed in mass units and thus called “effective mass”. A calibration campaign was conducted in December 2012 at the SCK·CEN BR1 facility within the framework of the scientific cooperation VEP (VENUS-E-PROTEUS) between SCK·CEN, CEA and PSI. Two actions were conducted in order to improve the calibration method. First a new characterisation of the thermal flux cavity and the MARK3 neutron flux conversion device performed by SCK·CEN allowed using calculated effective cross sections for determining detectors effective masses. Dosimetry irradiations were performed in situ in order to determine the neutron flux level and provide link to the metrological standard. Secondly two fission chambers were also calibrated at the CEA CALIBAN reactor (fast neutron spectrum), using the same method so that the results can be compared with the results obtained at the SCK·CEN. In this paper the calibration method and recent improvements on uncertainty reduction are presented. The results and uncertainties obtained in the two reactors CALIBAN and BR1 are compared and discussed.

Future experimental programmes in the CROCUS reactor

Pavel Frajtag, Mathieu Hursin, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Oskari Ville Pakari, Andreas Pautz

CROCUS is a teaching and research zero-power reactor operated by the Laboratory for Reactor Physics and Systems Behaviour (LRS) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL). Three new experimental programmes are scheduled for the forthcoming years. The first programme consists in an experimental investigation of mechanical noise induced by fuel rods vibrations. An in-core device has been designed for allowing the displacement of up to 18 uranium metal fuel rods in the core periphery. The vibration amplitude will be 6 mm in the radial direction (±3 mm around the central position), while the frequency can be tuned between 0.1 and 5 Hz. The experiments will be used to validate computational dynamic tools currently under development, which are based on DORT-TD and CASMO/S3K code systems. The second programme concerns the measurement of in-core neutron noise for axial void profile reconstruction. Simulations performed at Chalmers University have shown how the void fraction and velocity profiles can be reconstructed from noise measurements. The motivation of these experiments is to develop an experimental setup to validate in-core the method in partnership with Chalmers University. The third experimental programme aims at continuing the validation effort on the nuclear data required in the calculation of GEN-III PWR reactors with heavy steel reflectors. This is a collaboration with CEA Cadarache that extends the results of the PERLE experiments carried out in the E reactor at CEA. Scattering cross sections at around 1 MeV will be studied separately by replacing successively the water reflector by sheets of stainless steel alloy and pure metals – iron, nickel, and chromium. Data will be extracted from the measured flux attenuation using foils in the metal reflector and from the criticality effects of these reflectors. In parallel to the three reactor experiments, we develop in-core detectors and measurement systems. Following the last development of a neutron noise measurement station in pulse mode, a second neutron noise station in current mode is being designed. In current mode the reactor can be used at higher power without dead time effects. It allows faster measurement time or lower results uncertainties. Finally, a joint development of a full new detection system based on chemical vapour deposited (sCVD) diamond has been started with the CIVIDEC instrumentation start-up company. A first prototype has been tested in November 2015 in CROCUS. One of the main purposes is to work on the discrimination of gammas, thermal and fast neutrons for demonstrating the interest of this detector type in a mixed neutron-gamma field.

2016

Correction factors to apply to fission rates measured by miniature fission chambers in various neutron spectra

Vincent Pierre Lamirand

CEA develops and makes use of miniature fission chambers (MFCs, with radius down to 1.5 mm) for reactor physics conducted in experimental reactors such as EOLE and MINERVE zero power reactors (CEA Cadarache). When measuring fission rate, it is known that the neutron spectrum in the irradiation channel can be modified by the detector and the detector fixture. So the result of the measurement does not give a direct access to the desired quantity (fission rate, neutron flux,etc.) To overcome this problem, it is possible to make use of Monte Carlo calculations based on a detailed modeling of the detector. It could then be included in the 3D reactor model but this leads to large and time consuming calculations. In this case, measurement results can be combined directly with calculated values to produce the desired quantity. Another possibility is to calculate correction factors to apply to the biased measurement, i.e. to perform two-step calculations. Those factors depend on the detector geometry, the neutron spectrum and the fissile isotope at stake. A method to determine those factors is presented in this paper. The previously calculated neutron spectrum is fed to a simplified calculation route that includes only the detector and its close environment. Correction factors are obtained from two calculations results (with and without the detector fixture). In this case, the measured fission rates are corrected before being further processed. This paper details a parameter study on the impact of MFC parts and its environment (cable, connector) on the observed fission rate. Precise models of CEA-made MFCs have been developed for that purpose and used to produce correction factors for various fissile isotopes and neutron spectra. It is shown that fission rates can be greatly underestimated because of neutron radiative capture in MFC parts close to the fissile coating (9% in the worst case). The impact on standard reactor physics measurements is then discussed.

2014

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.

EPFL2020