Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Calculation and measurement of Al prompt capture gammas above water in a pool-type reactor

  • Received : 2021.04.22
  • Accepted : 2022.05.18
  • Published : 2022.10.25
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Abstract

Prompt capture gammas are an important part of the fission reactor gamma field. Because some of the structural materials after neutron capture can emit photons with high energies forming the dominant component of the gamma spectrum in the high energy region, the following study of the high energy capture gamma was carried out. High energy gamma radiation may play a major role in areas of the radiation sciences as reactor dosimetry. The HPGe measurements and calculations of the high-energy aluminum capture gamma were performed at two moderator levels in the VR-1 pool-type reactor. The result comparison for nominal levels was within two sigma uncertainties for the major 7.724 MeV peak. A larger discrepancy of 60% was found for the 7.693 MeV peak. The spectra were also measured using a stilbene detector, and a good agreement between HPGe and stilbene was observed. This confirms the validity of stilbene measurements of gamma flux. Additionally, agreement of the wide peak measurement in 7-9.2 MeV by stilbene detector shows the possibility of using the organic scintillators as an independent power monitor. This fact is valid in these reactor types because power is proportional to the thermal neutron flux, which is also proportional to the production of capture gammas forming the wide peak.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

The presented work has been realized within Institutional Support by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and with the use of the infrastructure Reactors LVR-15 and LR-0, which is financially supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports - project LM2015074, the SANDA project funded under H2020-EURATOM-1.1 contract 847552. The authors would like to thank the VR-1 staff headed by F. Fejt for their effective help during the experiments and for the precise monitoring of the reactor power. The VR-1 operation was supported by the LM2018118 project: VR-1 - Support for reactor operation for research activities, which was granted by The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic.

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