On Line Neutron Flux Mapping in Fuel Coolant Channels of a Research Reactor

Loïc Barbot (1) , Christophe Domergue (1) , Jean-Francois Villard (1) , Christophe Destouches (1) , George Braoudakis (2) , David Wassink (2) , Bradley Sinclair (2) , John C. Osborn (2) , Huayou Wu (2) , Christophe Blandin (1) , Mathieu Thevenin (3) , Gwenolé Corre (3) , Stéphane Normand (3)

1 DER - Département Etude des Réacteurs
2 ANSTO - Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation [Australie]
3 LCAE - Laboratoire Capteurs et Architectures Electroniques

This work deals with the on-line neutron flux mapping of the OPAL research reactor. A specific irradiation device has been set up to investigate fuel coolant channels using subminiature fission chambers to get thermal neutron flux profiles. Experimental results are compared to first neutronic calculations and show good agreement (C/E ~ 0.97).

Keywords: Campbell mode; fission chamber; on-line neutron flux mapping; research reactor; fission reactor cooling; fission research reactors; neutron flux; on line neutron flux mapping; fuel coolant channels; OPAL research reactor; subminiature fission chambers; neutronic calculations

Domains: Physics [physics]; Nuclear Experiment [nucl-ex]; Physics [physics]; Physics [physics]; Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability [physics.data-an]; Computer Science [cs]; Modeling and Simulation

Loïc Barbot, Christophe Domergue, Jean-Francois Villard, Christophe Destouches, George Braoudakis, et al.. On Line Neutron Flux Mapping in Fuel Coolant Channels of a Research Reactor. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 2015, 62 (2), pp.415 - 419. ⟨10.1109/TNS.2015.2396637⟩. ⟨cea-01896023⟩