Abstract
The gamma-ray activity from short-lived fission products has been measured in fresh and burnt UO2 fuel samples after irradiation in a zero-power reactor. For the first time, short-lived gamma-ray activity from fresh and burnt fuel has been compared and fresh-to-burnt fuel fission rate ratios have been derived.For the measurements, well characterized fresh and burnt fuel samples, with burn-ups up to 46GWd/t, were irradiated in the zero-power research reactor PROTEUS. Fission rate ratios were derived based on the counting of high-energy gamma-rays above 2200keV, in order to discriminate against the high intrinsic activity of the burnt fuel.This paper presents the measured fresh-to-burnt fuel fission rate ratios based on the 142La (2542keV), 89Rb (2570keV), 138Cs (2640keV) and 95Y (3576keV) high-energy gamma-ray lines. Comparisons are made with the results of Monte Carlo modeling of the experimental configuration, carried out using the MCNPX code. The measured fission rate ratios have 1σ uncertainties of 1.7–3.4%. The comparisons with calculated predictions show an agreement within 1–3σ, although there appears to be a slight bias (∼3%).
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