Abstract
Knowledge of the neutron distribution in a nuclear reactor is necessary to ensure the safe and efficient burnup of reactor fuel. Currently these measurements are performed by in-core systems in what are extremely hostile environments and in most reactor accident scenarios it is likely that these systems would be damaged. Here we present a compact and portable radiation imaging system with the ability to image high-intensity fast-neutron and gamma-ray fields simultaneously. This system has been deployed to image radiation fields emitted during the operation of a TRIGA test reactor allowing a spatial visualization of the internal reactor conditions to be obtained. The imaged flux in each case is found to scale linearly with reactor power indicating that this method may be used for power-resolved reactor monitoring and for the assay of ongoing nuclear criticalities in damaged nuclear reactors.
Highlights
Knowledge of the neutron distribution in a nuclear reactor is necessary to ensure the safe and efficient burnup of reactor fuel
Several levels of redundancy are needed for reactor monitoring due to the harsh environment associated with the fission process
We present an approach to reactor monitoring using a standoff imaging system, able to image fast-neutron and gamma-ray fields emitted by a reactor core
Summary
Knowledge of the neutron distribution in a nuclear reactor is necessary to ensure the safe and efficient burnup of reactor fuel. These reports frequently exploit the use of Compton cameras that only respond to gamma radiation and are not resilient to high-intensity fields They are not transferable to power-resolved imaging or operational reactors that require assay of the neutron emission, let alone the immediate aftermath post-accident. The results indicate that this imaging approach is power-resolved, such that the images reveal information of the reaction rates, that is, the rate of fuel burnup within the core This capability may lead to a new widely used method of reactor monitoring with relevance spanning small medical isotope reactors through to the large power reactors currently in build worldwide, many of which emit a sufficient fast-neutron component[16]. Further applications of this mixed-field imaging system are relevant to any other neutron-emitting systems and materials, including nuclear fusion research, and could herald the way for stand-off, non-intrusive enrichment assessment
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