Abstract
In the framework of the French National Research Agency program on nuclear safety and radioprotection, the ‘DIstributed Sensing for COrium Monitoring and Safety’ project aims at developing innovative instrumentation for corium monitoring in case of severe accident in a Pressurized Water nuclear Reactor. Among others, a new under-vessel instrumentation based on Self-Powered Neutron Detectors is developed using a numerical simulation toolbox, named ‘MATiSSe’. The CEA Instrumentation Sensors and Dosimetry Lab developed MATiSSe since 2010 for Self-Powered Neutron Detectors material selection and geometry design, as well as for their respective partial neutron and gamma sensitivity calculations. MATiSSe is based on a comprehensive model of neutron and gamma interactions which take place in Selfpowered neutron detector components using the MCNP6 Monte Carlo code. As member of the project consortium, the THERMOCOAX SAS Company is currently manufacturing some instrumented pole prototypes to be tested in 2017. The full severe accident monitoring equipment, including the standalone low current acquisition system, will be tested during a joined CEA-THERMOCOAX experimental campaign in some realistic irradiation conditions, in the Slovenian TRIGA Mark II research reactor.
Highlights
FOLLOWING the 2013 Fukushima accident, the French government launched an important research program on nuclear safety and radioprotection (RSNR), managed by the French National Research Agency (ANR)
Self-Powered Neutron Detectors (SPNDs) performances are presented for the GEN2 reactors in 'Normal Operation' (NO) and Severe Accident (SA) when the corium pours on the basemat surface
The corium progression is monitored by means of an instrumented pole equipped with SPNDs and a Thermocouple
Summary
FOLLOWING the 2013 Fukushima accident, the French government launched an important research program on nuclear safety and radioprotection (RSNR), managed by the French National Research Agency (ANR). This strategic initiative is co-funded by the government and run by the General Commissariat of Investment (CGI) through the ‘Investments for the Future’ Program (PIA). Two CEA laboratories (the Instrumentation Sensors and Dosimetry Lab - LDCI and the Sensors and Electronic Architecture Lab - LCAE) and the THERMOCOAX SAS Company co-developed a sensing instrumentation device including SPNDs and thermocouples as well as a standalone low current acquisition system. The THERMOCOAX SAS Company is currently manufacturing prototypes to be tested in 2017 in a European research reactor
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