The development of a reactivity monitoring system for subcritical reactors is a major task prior to industrial scale accelerator driven system (ADS) construction. Within the 6th European Framework Program, the IP-EUROTRANS project has performed a series of experiments at the Yalina-Booster subcritical assembly located at the Joint Institute for Power and Nuclear Research (JIPNR) of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, using a continuous (D, T) (fusion) neutron source in pulsed and continuous mode with short interruptions (beam trips). In this paper, the implementation and results of three different monitoring techniques intended to operate with continuous neutron sources will be presented, namely the source-jerk technique, the prompt decay constant technique and the current-to-flux technique. The results will be compared with the values of the reactivity obtained using the pulsed source in PNS experiments, discussed in detail in another paper. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

“YALINA-Booster” is a fast-thermal sub-critical facility intended for investigating the neutronics of accelerator driven systems (ADS) at different sub-criticality levels, different configurations, and fuel compositions for the ADS development. The conversion of the YALINA-Booster assembly with highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel in fast zone (36 and 90% of U) to the low enriched uranium (LEU) with U of less than 20% without performance losses has been performed. The experimental research program have covered the measurements of sub-criticality levels, spatial distribution of neutron flux, time dependent neutron flux measurements from different neutron source pulse durations, threshold reaction rates, transmutation reaction rates, neutron spectrum, etc. One of the important issues is the validation of the current experimental methods and techniques and their adaptation for use in ADS experiments. In this paper, the main neutronics parameters of YALINA-Booster with HEU and LEU fuels are considered.

The prompt decay constant method and the area-ratio (Sjostrand) method constitute the reference techniques for measuring the reactivity of a subcritical system using Pulsed Neutron Source experiments (PNS). However, different experiments have shown that in many cases it is necessary to apply corrections to the experimental results in order to take into account spectral and spatial effects. In these cases, the approach usually followed is to develop different specific correction procedures for each method. In this work we discuss the validity of prompt decay constant method and the area-ratio method in the Yalina-Booster subcritical assembly and propose a general correction procedure based on Monte Carlo simulations. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Summary of conclusions from the EUROTRANS reactivity monitoring experiments at YALINA-booster

Abstract The area ratio method of Sjöstrand is generally considered one of the most reliable reactivity determination methods and thus is a major candidate for off-line calibration purposes in future accelerator-driven systems for high-level waste incineration. In this work, the Sjöstrand area ratio method has been evaluated experimentally under thorough conditions in the strongly heterogeneous subcritical facility YALINA-Booster. Both strengths and weaknesses of the method have been identified. Most surprisingly, it has been found that the area ratio reactivity estimates may differ a factor of 2 depending on detector position. It is also shown that this strong spatial dependence can be explained based on a simple two-region point-kinetics model and corrected by means of correction factors obtained through Monte Carlo simulations. A new Monte Carlo correction method is proposed that includes, at the same time, the spatial disturbance and the effective delayed neutron fraction. In that way, the value of the effective multiplication factor is obtained from the measured dollar reactivity without the need of calculating the effective delayed neutron fraction explicitly, and thereby, the delayed neutron transport is performed only once. Further, it has been found that the Sjöstrand area ratio method is not sensitive to perturbations of the source multiplication factor.

In support of an online reactivity monitoring experiment, also presented in this conference, this work presents the reactivity calibration measurements performed with a pulsed neutron source in the coupled fast-thermal subcritical facility YALINA-Booster. These experiments reveal the complexity of experimentally obtaining a global reactivity from a highly heterogeneous core. Moreover, the effect of varying the source multiplication at constant reactivity on the area ratio technique is explored. It is found that the reactivity obtained with the area ratio technique carry strong spatial dependence, but it can be handled by calculated correction factors. On the other hand the method is showed not to be sensitive to changes in the source multiplication. It is also shown that the prompt neutron decay constant does not vary strongly over the core except at deep subcritical states.

Reactivity monitoring is one of the urgent problems that require a solution in order to achieve a license for a future full-scale ADS. As a part of the EUROTRANS experiments at the YALINA-Booster facility, presented in this conference, a set of measurements with imposed beam-trips has been performed. Traditionally, the source jerk method has been used in subcritical systems to obtain the reactivity by comparing the total neutron flux before the neutron source removal to the semi-stable delayed neutron flux after the source removal. The deuterium-tritium neutron source of the YALINA-Booster facility can, in addition to pulsed mode operation, operate with continuous beam with short imposed millisecond-scale interruptions, thus providing the possibility to monitor the reactivity at each beam trip in the source jerk manner. In order to test the validity of the beam-trip reactivity values determined by using detectors operating in current-mode (also presented in this conference), the reactivity values of the YALINA-Booster assembly obtained through the beam-trip technique using pulsed-mode detectors is presented in this work. In these experiments, a beam-trip frequency of 1 Hz and an interruption time of ∼20 ms have been chosen and two different core loadings with effective multiplication factor around 0.95 have been investigated. These two different loadings with close to equal reactivity but different source multiplication characteristics make it possible to explore the effect of the different source multiplications. In addition, the response of the imposed beam-trip reactivity monitoring technique to reactivity insertions and removals has been studied through control rod movements. Experimental data from fission chambers have been acquired from all three zones of the core: the fast booster zone, the thermal zone and the reflector.

The concept of application of high energy accelerators is based on large-scale usage of high energy spallation reactions for neutron production in targets with A > 150 (Pb, Bi, W, U, Pb-Bi) with subsequent multiplication of generated neutrons in sub-critical blankets (keff ∼ 0.9−0.98) [1-4]. In such systems high neutron flux densities (Φ ∼ 10 − 10n/(cm · s) can be achieved that is one of the main conditions for radioactive nuclides transmutation. The experimental investigations at sub-critical systems are planned only because they are complicated, expensive and time consuming and often may not be realized with application of modern accelerators, since most of them have inappropriate beam parameters. In this regard the experimental research of various aspects of ADS on the basis of low energy accelerators – cyclotrons, microtrons, as well as deuterium and tritium ions accelerators representing neutron generators of high intensity is of great importance [5,6].

In addition to the pulsed neutron source measurements and the continuous source beam-trip and current-to-flux measurements performed in the YALINA-Booster facility, also presented in this conference, a set of neutron noise measurements has been performed to achieve a complete characterization of the core. The neutron noise measurements have been performed in three different configurations covering a subcriticality range from 0.85 to 0.977. The Rossi-α neutron noise technique has been applied to detector counts from two channels in the thermal part of the core. The Rossi-α results are compared to the experimental prompt neutron decay constants obtained from the pulsed neutron source measurements. A first approach fitting procedure reveals a need of three exponentials to describe the Rossi-α histograms. It has been found that at deep subcriticality, the fundamental mode decay may coincide with or be close to a higher eigenmode, thus making it difficult to determine the prompt neutron decay constant correctly.

Accelerator-driven systems have been proposed for incineration of transuranic elements from spent nuclear fuel. For safe operation of such facilities, a robust method for reactivity monitoring is required. Experience has shown that the performance of reactivity measurement methods in terms of accuracy and applicability is highly system dependent. Further investigations are needed to increase the knowledge data bank before applying the methods to an industrial facility and to achieve license to operate such a facility. In this thesis, two systems have been subject to investigation of various reactivity measurement methods. Conditions for successful utilization of the methods are presented, based on the experimental experience. In contrast to previous studies in this field, the reactivity has not only been determined, but also monitored based on the so called beam trip methodology which is applicable also to non-zero power systems. The results of this work constitute a part of the knowledge base for the definition of a validated online reactivity monitoring methodology for facilities currently being under development in Europe (XT-ADS and EFIT).