Review of CALORRE Calorimeter Characterizations Under Laboratory and Irradiation Conditions

Abstract

This article reviews the work to date on the CALOrimeter with Radial thermal transfers for nuclear REactors (CALORRE) differential calorimeter patented by Aix-Marseille University (AMU) and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in 2015. The article presents the results obtained with the first prototype of the CALORRE calorimeter qualified under real conditions during an irradiation campaign in the MARIA reactor in 2015, including previously unpublished details. Then, studies of different CALORRE calorimetric cells characterized by experiments under laboratory conditions are described. Several configurations were studied to determine the influence of cell height, horizontal fin geometry, and structural material composition on calorimeter response. These calculations provide for a calibration protocol by generating a heat source inside each cell, with evaluation of linearity, sensitivity, range, reproducibility, response time, and absolute temperatures. Finally, within the framework of a new research program called Compact-CALORimeter Irradiations inside the MIT research reactor (CALOR-I) and financed by AMU Foundation (A*Midex), a design optimization of the calorimeter assembly was carried out in order to remove contact thermal resistances and provide a new very compact CALORRE calorimeter suited for the in-core water loop of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) reactor (2 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{W}\cdot \text{g}^{-1}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> peak nuclear heating rate). The response of this new very compact calorimeter is estimated using 3-D numerical thermal simulations under real conditions.