Sensitivity of fuel failure detection by the delayed neutron measurement in the primary cooling circuit of HANARO

Abstract

The sensitivity of the fuel failure detection system based on the delayed neutron measurement in the primary cooling circuit of a research reactor, HANARO is investigated. The neutrons around the primary cooling pipe during normal operation of HANARO are measured with BF 3 detector, and their count rate is 900 cps. They are regarded as photoneutrons due to the high energy gamma-rays from N-16 and delayed neutrons from the fission of the uranium contaminated on the fuel surface. The contribution of each neutron source is analyzed by measuring the changes of the neutron counts before and after the abrupt shutdown of reactor. In order to estimate the sensitivity of the fuel failure detection, the neutron count rate of BF 3 detector is predicted by Monte Carlo calculation. The generation, transportation and detection of the photoneutrons and the delayed neutrons are simulated for the geometry similar to the experiments. From the calculations and experiments, it is ascertained that the photoneutron contribution to the total count rate is about 20–30%, and that the delayed neutron count rate is expected to about 720 cps. The fission rate in the flow tube of the reactor core by the surface contamination is obtained from the deduced delayed neutron count rate, and it is estimated to 1.66 × 10 5 fissions/cm 3 s. From the MCNP calculation, it is confirmed that this fission rate can originate from the contaminated uranium of 120 μg, which is about 13% of the maximum allowable surface contamination on the fuel surface. The sensitivity of U-235 mass detection by the delayed neutron measurement can be concluded to about 0.2 μg-U 235/cps. Thus, it is confirmed that the delayed neutron detection is sensitive enough to monitor the fuel failure, and that the neutron count rate is high enough for stable signal with short counting time.