Reactivity determination in accelerator driven reactors using reactor noise analysis

Abstract

Feynman-alpha and Rossi-alpha methods are used in traditional nuclear reactors to determine the subcritical reactivity of a system. The methods are based on the measurement of the mean value, variance and the covariance of detector counts for different measurement times. Such methods attracted renewed attention recently with the advent of the so-called accelerator driven reactors (ADS) proposed some time ago. The ADS systems, intended to be used either in energy generation or transuranium transmutation, will use a subcritical core with a strong spallation source. A spallation source has statistical properties that are different from those traditionally used by radioactive sources. In such reactors the monitoring of the subcritical reactivity is very important, and a statistical method, such as the Feynman-alpha method, is capable of resolving this problem.