Activation computation for MINERVE cleanup and dismantling

G. Ritter (1)

1 CEA-DES (ex-DEN) - CEA-Direction des Energies (ex-Direction de l'Energie Nucléaire)

MINERVE was a French nuclear reactor mock up facility operated by the French Atomic Energy Commission, CEA. It is now facing decommissioning and dismantling which requires an assessment of activation Activation computations are based on a realistic model of the reactor including the main components of civil engineering. The computations were performed with CEA code TRIPOLI4® for neutron transport and CEA DARWIN 2.3 reference evolution package for activation. Nuclear data came from EAF and JEFF3.1.1. The neutron transport was made in two consecutive steps. First a criticality calculation to determine the leakage off the core and second a shielding calculation to propagate neutrons towards structural materials. Eventually, the activation and decay process, computed with CEA DARWIN package, helped determine activities around the core. The core power was limited to 100 W and the water layer between core and peripheral structural materials thick enough so that activities after 40 years of operations remain limited. The goal of this study is to present the means to compute the specific neutron activation in the civil engineering.

Mots clés: Dismantling; MINERVE; DARWIN2.3; Activation; TRIPOLI4

Domaines: Physique Nucléaire Expérimentale [nucl-ex]; Physique Nucléaire Théorique [nucl-th]

G. Ritter. Activation computation for MINERVE cleanup and dismantling. RRFM (European Research Reactor Conference) – IGORR 2019 (International Group Operating Research Reactors), Mar 2019, Amman, Jordan. ⟨cea-02394077⟩