Measurement of 237Np Fission Rate Ratio Relative to 235U Fission Rate in Cores with Various Thermal Neutron Spectrum at the Kyoto University Critical Assembly.

Abstract

Integral measurements of 237 Np fission rate ratio relative to 235 U fission rate have been performed at Kyoto University Critical Assembly. The fission rates have been measured using the back-to-back type double fission chamber at five thermal cores with different H/ 235 U ratio so that the neutron spectra of the cores were systematically varied. The measured fission rate ratio per atom was 0.00439 to 0.0298, with a typical uncertainty of 2 to 3%. The measured data were compared with the calculated results using SRAC/TWOTRAN and MVP based on JENDL-3.2, which gave the averaged C/E values of 0.93 and 0.95, respectively. Obtained results of C/E using 237 Np cross sections from JENDL-3/2, ENDF/B-VI.5 and JEF2.2 show that the latter two gave smaller results than JENDL-3.2 by about 4%, which clearly reflects the discrepancy in the evaluated cross section among the libraries. This difference arises from both fast fission and resonance region. Although further improvement is recommended, 237 Np fission cross section in JENDL-3.2 is considered to be superior to those in the other libraries and can be adopted for use in design calculations for minor actinide transmutation system using thermal reactors with prediction precision of 237 Np fission rate within 10%.