Measurement of fast neutron spectrum in the radial channel of VR-1 research reactor

Abstract

Having knowledge of the spectrum of fast neutrons in the irradiation position of a reactor plays an important role in many experimental settings. If well described, it can be used as a reference neutron field for validating and testing measuring devices or detectors. This paper compares model calculations with measurements of the neutron spectrum in the research reactor VR-1. The fast neutron spectrum was measured in the radial channel of VR-1 reactor using a stilbene scintillation detector and the NGA-01 measuring device. The NGA-01 is a two-parameter spectrometric system for neutron and gamma radiation fields. The calculations were performed in a critical mode of the MCNP6 code using ENDF/B-VII.1 nuclear data library. Generally, a good agreement was achieved. However, a slight discrepancy in the neutron spectrum between the calculated and measured values was found in the 2–3 MeV region. In other regions, the differences between calculated and experimental values are comparable with uncertainties. Since the detector is distanced from the core, the neutron beam can be assumed parallel and therefore possible issues with stilbene anisotropy are eliminated. Thus, this experiment can be used for validation of a reactor leakage spectrum and nuclear cross sections in the energy region above 6 MeV, which is of interest for the nuclear data section of International Atomic Energy Agency.