The CABRI fast neutron Hodoscope: calibration campaign results
Résumé
Radioprotection Institute (IRSN) is owned and operated by CEA. This pool type research reactor located on the Cadarache nuclear research center in southern France, is devoted to fuel safety studies. The CABRI International Program (CIP), managed by IRSN in the framework of an OECD/NEA agreement, consists in studying the behavior of irradiated Light Water Reactor fuel under Reactivity Initiated Accidents (RIA). For the purpose of this program, a huge renovation of the facility has been conducted since 2003 to 2015 both for regulatory and experimental needs. The CABRI Water Loop was then installed to ensure prototypical Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) conditions for testing irradiated fuel rods.
The hodoscope station implemented in the CABRI reactor is a unique online fuel motion monitoring system, operated by IRSN and dedicated to the measurement of the fast neutrons emitted by the tested fuel rodlet during the power pulse. It is one of the most distinctive features of the CABRI facility. The system is able to determine the fuel motion, if any, with a time resolution of 1ms and a spatial resolution of 3mm during the transient test. The hodoscope equipment has been upgraded as well during the CABRI facility renovation. This paper presents the main outcomes achieved during the hodoscope calibration campaign in order to determine the new sensitivity coefficients of the detectors. This campaign was performed into two phases: fresh UO2 fuel rod irradiation in CABRI reactor, and then gamma spectrometry measurement on this irradiated rod performed in hot cells facility. The comparison between hodoscope neutrons profile and gamma-scanning allows to determine the hodoscope detectors sensibility coefficients.
Domaines
Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]
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