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Fabrication of Ionization Chamber to Measure the Burnup of Spent Fuel  

Park, Se-Hwan (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute)
Eom, Sung-Ho (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute)
Shin, Hee-Sung (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute)
Lim, Hye-In (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute)
Ha, Jang-Ho (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute)
Kim, Han-Soo (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute)
Publication Information
Journal of Radiation Protection and Research / v.35, no.1, 2010 , pp. 21-25 More about this Journal
Abstract
Burnup of spent fuel should be determined accurately for the safety control of spent fuel. Especially, it is necessary to measure the burnup profile along the nuclear fuel axis. In the present work, an ionization chamber was designed and fabricated to measure the gamma ray profile inside the guide tube of spent fuel. The ionization chamber was composed of three parts; induction part, gas-inlet part, and sensor part. The sensor part had two electrodes; cathode and anode. A guide electrode was considered in the ionization chamber design to make the ionization chamber to be inserted easily into the guide tube. Pure gas (argon and xenon) was inserted into the ionization chamber, and the leakage current and saturation curve were measured to determine the operation characteristics of the ionization chamber. The gamma ray radiation was also measured in relatively high dose environment. The gamma ray profile of the spent fuel will be measured with the ionization chamber.
Keywords
Ionization Chamber; Spent Fuel; Burnup; Leakage Current; Saturation Curve;
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