Neutron Source Multiplication Research Articles

A practical subcritical rod worth measurement technique based on the improved neutron source multiplication method

The control rod worth is a key safety parameter required to be measured in commercial pressurized water reactors (PWRs). Conventionally, the control rod worth is measured after reaching the critical state, which occupies the considerable time in the zero-power physics test. In this study, an efficient control-rod worth measurement technique has been proposed based on the improved neutron-source multiplication method, which can be implemented with the source-range detector count rates in the subcritical states. Moreover, the noise reduction technique has been adopted to smooth the large fluctuation existing in the original signals. In order to verify the engineering performance of the proposed measurement technique, the measured source-range detector count rates during the rod withdrawal process before reaching critical state in a CNP1000 reactor have been employed. It demonstrated that almost all estimated results of control rod worth satisfy the engineering acceptance criteria, except one control rod with the relative difference over 10 %, which indicates the capability of the proposed method in estimating control rod worth.

Subcriticality determination methodology during fuel loading of accelerator-driven system

ABSTRACT We propose a subcriticality determination methodology to be applied during fuel loading of an accelerator-driven system (ADS). In this methodology, subcriticality is determined via the area ratio method (via the proton accelerator) in the first step and by the neutron source multiplication method (through the spontaneous fission neutrons of minor actinides) in subsequent steps; then, the number of fuel assemblies to be loaded in the next step is predicted. We performed a numerical simulation of the proposed methodology, and the estimated subcriticalities agreed well with those obtained by eigenvalue calculations. We also conducted an uncertainty assessment of the proposed methodology and deduced a value of 1000 pcm for the uncertainty. The proposed methodology can be a candidate for practical subcriticality monitoring for ADSs.

Absolutization of the Subcriticality Levels Measured by the Neutron Source Multiplication Method and the Area Ratio Method

Versions of the neutron source multiplication (NSM) method are considered. The method developed at foreign research institutes to determine the reactivity of deeply subcritical reactors uses reactivity of the “reference” level. Further, the results of the use in the above methods and in the area ratio method of the computational experiment simulation technique that yields sufficiently precise data without involving the reference level are discussed. The practicability of applying the method of the computational experiment simulation to the versions of the neutron source multiplication methods used at some institutes of Russia in the procedure of critical mass experiments is validated.

Source multiplication measurements and neutron correlation analyses for a highly enriched uranium subcritical core driven by an inherent source in Kyoto University Critical Assembly

ABSTRACT For a highly enriched uranium subcritical core driven by an inherent or an external Am-Be source in Kyoto University Critical Assembly (KUCA), a series of the source multiplication measurements, the Feynman-α and the Rossi-α neutron correlation analyses was carried out to demonstrate quantitatively that the use of the former inherent source had some advantages over that of the latter external source. Under a reactor drive by the external source, the subcriticality obtained by the neutron source multiplication method (NSM) significantly depended on neutron counter position and was consequently in very poor agreement with that calculated by the continuous-energy Monte Carlo code MVP (version 3) with the nuclear data library JENDL-4.0. In contrast to the above drive, the other drive by the inherent source spectacularly reduced the counter-position dependence and lead to a good agreement with the calculation by the MVP. The prompt-neutron decay constant determined from the Feynman-α analysis under the external source was also significantly dependent on the counter position. The Rossi-α analysis had a relatively slight counter-position dependence of the decay constant to the Feynman-α analysis but had a very low S/N ratio, which indicated an inferior applicability of the Rossi-α analysis to the reactor drive and enlarged a statistical uncertainty of the decay constant. On the other hand, the reactor drive by the inherent source considerably reduced the counter-position dependence of the Feynman-α analysis and spectacularly enhanced the S/N ratio of the Rossi-α analysis. An effective strength of the inherent source could be also determined from the S/N ratio. When the prompt-neutron decay constant obtained under this reactor drive was transformed into each subcriticality by the Simmons and King method, where a subcritical dependence of the generation time and the effective delayed-neutron fraction was neglected, the subcriticality transformed seemed to agree well with that calculated by the MVP. When the decay constant was transformed by the inhour method, where the subcritical dependence of these kinetic parameters was considered, a systematic disagreement between the transformed and the calculated subcriticality appeared.

The first application of modified neutron source multiplication method in subcriticality monitoring based on Monte Carlo

Abstract The control rod drive mechanism needs to be debugged after reactor fresh fuel loading. It is of great importance to monitor the subcriticality of this process accurately. A modified method was applied to the subcriticality monitoring process, in which only a single control rod cluster was fully withdrawn from the core. In order to correct the error in the results obtained by Neutron Source Multiplication Method, which is based on one point reactor model, Monte Carlo neutron transport code was employed to calculate the fission neutron distribution, the iterated fission probability and the neutron flux in the neutron detector. This article analyzed the effect of a coarse mesh and a fine mesh to tally fission neutron distributions, the iterated fission probability distributions and to calculate correction factors. The subcriticality before and after modification is compared with the subcriticality calculated by MCNP code. The modified results turn out to be closer to calculation. It's feasible to implement the modified NSM method in large local reactivity addition process using Monte Carlo code based on 3D model.

Measurement of keff by delayed neutron multiplication in subcritical systems

In this paper, we build on the concept of equivalent fundamental-mode source to propose using delayed neutrons as a neutron source in multiplication experiments to acquire the effective multiplication factor keff of subcritical systems, which is difficult to acquire directly from conventional neutron source multiplication method. We analyzed the difference between a fundamental-mode fission source and delayed neutron source, then adopted a factor to convert delayed neutron distribution to an equivalent fundamental-mode source distribution, and employed Monte Carlo code to acquire this factor. The delayed neutron multiplication measurement method was established for the first time, and corresponding experiments were conducted in subcritical systems. The multiplication of delayed neutrons was measured based on Chinese Fast Burst Reactor-II (CFBR-II) at subcritical states, and keff was acquired from delayed neutron multiplication successfully (0.9921 and 0.9969, respectively). The relative difference between keff obtained by the new method and previous values acquired by the positive period method is less than 1% for these two studied cases.

Benchmarks of subcriticality in accelerator-driven system at Kyoto University Critical Assembly

Abstract Basic research on the accelerator-driven system is conducted by combining 235U-fueled and 232Th-loaded cores in the Kyoto University Critical Assembly with the pulsed neutron generator (14 MeV neutrons) and the proton beam accelerator (100 MeV protons with a heavy metal target). The results of experimental subcriticality are presented with a wide range of subcriticality level between near critical and 10,000 pcm, as obtained by the pulsed neutron source method, the Feynman-α method, and the neutron source multiplication method.

A new experimental approach for subcritical reactivity determination of multiplying systems

This work presents a new experimental approach to determine the reactivity levels of subcritical systems. The method employs the subcritical kinetic model developed by Gandini and Salvatores and it is based only on measured quantities such as counting rates of the detectors employed in the experiments and the parameters arising from the least squares fitting of the APSD (Auto Power Spectral Density). Detector efficiencies, quantity required in other procedures such as Neutron Source Multiplication (NSM) method, are not needed in the proposed method. The only hypothesis made in the method is the independence of the effective delayed neutron fraction and the prompt neutron generation time to the subcriticality level of the system. The proposed method was applied to measure the reactivity of several subcritical configurations of the IPEN/MB-01 reactor. Measurements of APSD were performed in several degrees of subcriticality (up to around −7000pcm). The APSD data were least squares fitted to get the prompt decay mode (α) and other quantities. Beside the startup source of the facility, an external neutron source of Am–Be was installed near the core in order to improve neutron counting statistics. The final experimental results are of very good quality. The proposed experimental method shows clearly that the classical point kinetic theory cannot describe the measured reactivity. Instead, the reactivity inferred from this model follows closely the subcriticality index (ζ) for the source arrangements in the experiment. The agreement of the MCNP5 and GPT-TORT results, both with ENDF/B-VII.0 as the basic nuclear data library, when compared to the corresponding experimental ones was very good.

Application of the modified neutron source multiplication method to the prototype FBR Monju

The Modified Neutron Source Method (MNSM) is applied to the prototype FBR Monju. This static method to estimate the reactivity in sub-critical conditions has already given good results on commercial pressurized water reactors. The MNSM consists both in the extraction of the fundamental mode seen by a detector to avoid the effect of higher modes near sources, and the correction of flux distortion effects due to control rod movement between different reactor states. Among Monju’s particularities that have a big influence on the MNSM factors are: the presence of two californium sources near the core and the position of the detector, which is located far from the core outside of the reactor vessel. The importance of spontaneous fission and (α, n) reactions, which have increased during the shutdown period of 15years, will also be discussed. In order to evaluate the detector count rate, a propagation calculation has been conducted from the reactor vessel to the external detector. For two sub-critical states, an estimation of the reactivity has been made and compared to experimental data obtained in the restart experiments at Monju (2010). Results indicate a good agreement between the MNSM reactivity and the reactivity measured with other methods. The reactivity dependence of the correction to apply to the point kinetic equation is discussed.

Computation of Neutron Multiplicity Statistics Using Deterministic Transport

Nuclear nonproliferation efforts are supported by measurements that are capable of rapidly characterizing special nuclear materials (SNM). Neutron multiplicity counting is frequently used to estimate properties of SNM, including neutron source strength, multiplication, and generation time. Different classes of models have been used to estimate these and other properties from the measured neutron counting distribution and its statistics. This paper describes a technique to compute statistics of the neutron counting distribution using deterministic neutron transport models. This approach can be applied to rapidly analyze neutron multiplicity counting measurements without relying on the point reactor kinetics model.

Detected-neutron multiplication factor measured by neutron source multiplication method

An alternative definition of neutron multiplication factor measured by the neutron source multiplication (NSM) method is newly proposed. This newly defined neutron multiplication factor, k det, is derived on the basis of neutron detection process in a subcritical system with an external neutron source. The definition of k det is expressed as a ratio of total number of detected fission-neutrons to total number of detected all neutrons. In this paper, a heuristic derivation of k det is presented, and another interpretation of k det is explained by using the detector importance function. Based on the idea of k det, the measurement principle of NSM method is reinterpreted, and the correction factors in the NSM method are clarified. In order to verify our proposed NSM method, numerical analysis of the NSM method is carried out. The numerical results suggest that target neutron multiplication factors of the NSM method can be well estimated even without any corrections by putting a neutron detector where the effective neutron multiplication factor k eff is well approximated by k det.

Examination of Actual Neutron Count Rate Data during a Control Rod Drop Testing for Estimation of Control Rod Worth in PWRs

The Modified Neutron Source Multiplication (MNSM) method, which is based on the extraction of the fundamental mode of neutron flux distribution, has been proposed to estimate subcriticality. It has been proven applicable to a small critical assembly and domestic PWRs during criticality approach. In the following study, it is also shown by numerical simulation that it is applicable to estimate the subcriticality using neutron count rate data during the control rod drop testing in PWRs. As the next step, we looked further into the actual data of neutron count rate in order to examine whether the expected signal response was observed for the estimation. It was found that the actual data have shown the expected response, and the control rod worth could have been estimated in the same manner as during criticality approach. A new procedure is also proposed to measure a reference reactivity that is essentially required to evaluate the reactivity of each control rod worth.

Experimental determination of subcriticality at subcritical PWRs in Korea

A direct subcriticality measurement system (SMS) based on the Feynman-α method has recently been developed by KEPRI. It was applied to six commercial pressurized water reactors in Korea. However, the obtained Feynman curves failed to give proper multiplication factors. The objective of these tests was to investigate the performance of the Feynman method to predict directly the subcriticality of a given subcritical reactor by using the neutron pulse counts only without any reactor perturbation in the large commercial reactors. Recently, two methods developed by Hokkaido University and Westinghouse Electric Corporation. These methods have a defect due to being based on the modified neutron source multiplication method. To overcome this defect and derive operational benefits is necessary to estimate the subcriticality of a subcritical core directly from the neutron pulse counts only. The performance of the developed SMS was verified in the Kyoto University Critical Assembly and applied to eight 1000 MWe Optimized Pressurized Water Reactors (OPR1000) in Korea. The obtained results show that the SMS based on the Feynman method can be a useful tool to estimate the reactivity of a subcritical power reactor. Although the discrimination level of the signal-processing unit in OPR1000 suffers from noise and gamma ray effects, SMS can provide good Feynman curves and effective multiplication factors. However, the SMS has failed to give the reactivity for the entire measured data set. Improving the SMS and investigating the effects of different discriminator level settings at SPU in OPR1000 will be topics for further study.

A New Experimental Correction Method for the First-Order Perturbation Approximation in the Steady Subcritical Reactor

In the subcritical nuclear reactor, the subcriticality is closely related with the neutron flux distribution. Since the relationship between them is complex, the subcriticality measurement by conventional methods involves some difficulties, particularly when the subcriticality is large. A new subcriticality measurement method is proposed for the steady subcritical state. By this method, the relative distribution of the change in neutron flux between before and after the perturbation is numerically calculated. On the other hand, the amplitude of the perturbation is estimated from the count rates of neutron detectors. By this combination of the calculation and experiment, the subcriticality can be accurately estimated, to the extent that the perturbation is qualitatively known beforehand. One of the advantages of this method over the conventional modified neutron source multiplication method is that numerical calculations are only executed on unperturbed states. In addition, the completeness of the eigenfunctions is not assumed. The validity of this method is confirmed through the numerical calculation.

A New Experimental Correction Method for the First-Order Perturbation Approximation in the Steady Subcritical Reactor

In the subcritical nuclear reactor, the subcriticality is closely related with the neutron flux distribution. Since the relationship between them is complex, the subcriticality measurement by conventional methods involves some difficulties, particularly when the subcriticality is large. A new subcriticality measurement method is proposed for the steady subcritical state. By this method, the relative distribution of the change in neutron flux between before and after the perturbation is numerically calculated. On the other hand, the amplitude of the perturbation is estimated from the count rates of neutron detectors. By this combination of the calculation and experiment, the subcriticality can be accurately estimated, to the extent that the perturbation is qualitatively known beforehand. One of the advantages of this method over the conventional modified neutron source multiplication method is that numerical calculations are only executed on unperturbed states. In addition, the completeness of the eigenfunctions is not assumed. The validity of this method is confirmed through the numerical calculation.

Analysis of Reactivity Measurements in Core Physics Experiments on Full-MOX BWR

A core physics experimental program FUBILA has been performed to study core physics characteristics of full-MOX BWR cores consisting of high Pu-enriched MOX assemblies for high burnups. The program includes the measurement of reactivity worth, which is essential in operating BWR cores. The reactivity worth is due to the reactivity caused by (1) changes in the in-channel void fraction of assemblies, (2) the insertion of a B4C control blade, (3) Gd2O3-UO2 rods and UO2 rods in assemblies, and (4) the mixing of boron in a moderator related to a stand-by liquid control system. The reactivity worth was measured by the modified neutron source multiplication method using the reactivity worth of a pilot rod as a reference worth. The measured reactivity worth was determined by processing count rates of neutron detectors taking into account the detector efficiency and effective neutron source intensity analyzed by three-dimensional transport calculations. Comparing the measured reactivity worth with the results obtained by deterministic calculation methods and a Monte Carlo calculation method, the accuracy of the calculations was evaluated. The calculated results generally well reproduce the measurements, except for the boron reactivity worth in the moderator, for which the calculations overestimate the reactivity worth.

Analysis of Reactivity Measurements in Core Physics Experiments on Full-MOX BWR

A core physics experimental program FUBILA has been performed to study core physics characteristics of full-MOX BWR cores consisting of high Pu-enriched MOX assemblies for high burnups. The program includes the measurement of reactivity worth, which is essential in operating BWR cores. The reactivity worth is due to the reactivity caused by (1) changes in the in-channel void fraction of assemblies, (2) the insertion of a B4C control blade, (3) Gd2O3-UO2 rods and UO2 rods in assemblies, and (4) the mixing of boron in a moderator related to a stand-by liquid control system. The reactivity worth was measured by the modified neutron source multiplication method using the reactivity worth of a pilot rod as a reference worth. The measured reactivity worth was determined by processing count rates of neutron detectors taking into account the detector efficiency and effective neutron source intensity analyzed by three-dimensional transport calculations. Comparing the measured reactivity worth with the results obtained by deterministic calculation methods and a Monte Carlo calculation method, the accuracy of the calculations was evaluated. The calculated results generally well reproduce the measurements, except for the boron reactivity worth in the moderator, for which the calculations overestimate the reactivity worth.

Feasibility Study for Evaluation of Control Rod Worth in Pressurized Water Reactors using Neutron Count Rate during a Control Rod Drop Testing

Applicability of the modified Neutron Source Multiplication (NSM) method with extraction of the fundamental mode to subcriticality measurement has been proposed. Following the feasibility verification in the previous study based on numerical analyses, its applicability has been proven in a more realistic situation; in a withdrawal sequence of control rod banks during the PWR startup. Subcriticalities with various control rod insertion configurations were estimated based on the modified NSM method. The subcriticality could be evaluated with a good accuracy even with the mockup experiment where any special treatments for accurate measurement were not taken into account and furthermore the insensitivity of measured signals by reactivity changes and their large fluctuations were seen. Based on this fact, we further investigated a feasibility to use neutron count rate data obtained during the control rod drop testing, which is carried out before the reactor physics tests at hot zero power condition. When it is proven that these data could be used for the estimation of each control rod worth, the following reactor physics tests could be performed with the advanced knowledge of each control rod worth and procedures for detailed control rod worth measurement could be simplified or eliminated from the reactor physics tests.

Subcriticality Measurement of Pressurized Water Reactors during Criticality Approach using a Digital Reactivity Meter

A mockup experiment of subcriticality measurement with a digital reactivity meter during criticality approach in a PWR was carried out using plant data. There are some difficulties in the direct application of a digital reactivity meter to the subcriticality measurement. Some treatments were needed in using the count rate of Source Range (SR) detector as input signal to the digital reactivity meter. To overcome these difficulties, we proposed a digital reactivity meter combined with a methodology of the modified Neutron Source Multiplication (NSM) method with the fundamental mode extraction. In this study, the neutron source strength was defined as a constant in terms of a known initial stable subcriticality and the neutron signal from a steady state condition. Even though initial stable subcriticality might be contained some errors, the errors of estimated subcriticalities do not depend on the error contribution of initial stable subcriticality when we normalize the estimated subcriticalities with exactly known reference subcriticality. It was proved that the digital reactivity meter could be used not only for the subcriticality measurement or control rod worth measurement but also for the continuous monitoring of the subcriticality during criticality approach.

Suberiticality Measurement of Pressurized Water Reactors during Criticality Approach using a Digital Reactivity Meter

A mockup experiment of subcriticality measurement with a digital reactivity meter during criticality approach in a PWR was carried out using plant data. There are some difficulties in the direct application of a digital reactivity meter to the subcriticality measurement. Some treatments were needed in using the count rate of Source Range (SR) detector as input signal to the digital reactivity meter. To overcome these difficulties, we proposed a digital reactivity meter combined with a methodology of the modified Neutron Source Multiplication (NSM) method with the fundamental mode extraction. In this study, the neutron source strength was defined as a constant in terms of a known initial stable subcriticality and the neutron signal from a steady state condition. Even though initial stable subcriticality might be contained some errors, the errors of estimated subcriticalities do not depend on the error contribution of initial stable subcriticality when we normalize the estimated subcriticalities with exactly known reference subcriticality. It was proved that the digital reactivity meter could be used not only for the subcriticality measurement or control rod worth measurement but also for the continuous monitoring of the subcriticality during criticality approach.