Experimental estimation of the delayed neutron fraction β eff of the MAESTRO core in the MINERVE zero power reactor

Erez Gilad; Oleg Rivin; Hanania Ettedgui; Ilan Yaar; Benoit Geslot; Alexandra Pepino; Jacques Di Salvo; Adrien Gruel; Patrick Blaise

doi:10.1080/00223131.2015.1038331

Experimental estimation of the delayed neutron fraction β _eff of the MAESTRO core in the MINERVE zero power reactor

Erez Gilad, Oleg Rivin, Hanania Ettedgui, Ilan Yaar, Benoit Geslot, Alexandra Pepino, Jacques Di Salvo, Adrien Gruel, Patrick Blaise

Unit of Nuclear Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

A method for determining the effective delayed neutron fraction β_eff using in-pile reactivity oscillations and Fourier analysis is presented. This method is based on measurements of the reactor's power response to small periodic in-pile reactivity perturbations and utilizes Fourier analysis for reconstruction of the reactor zero power transfer function. This approach enables the estimation of β_eff using multi-parameter nonlinear weighted least-squares fit. The method extends previous works by accounting for higher harmonics excitation in the frequency domain by the trapezoidal reactivity signal, both in the reactivity perturbation and in the reactor power response. We show that by using this new approach it is possible to obtain the reactor transfer function in a wide range of frequencies, using only a single oscillation frequency. This method is applied to a set of measurements of the MAESTRO core configuration in the MINERVE zero power reactor (ZPR) located at the Cadarache Research Center. The derived value of β_eff, using this method, is 711 ± 17 pcm.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1026-1033
Number of pages	8
Journal	Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology
Volume	52
Issue number	7-8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2015.1038331
State	Published - 3 Aug 2015

Keywords

critical experiment
effective delayed neutron fraction
reactor kinetics
reactor physics
reactor safety
response function

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Nuclear Energy and Engineering

Access to Document

10.1080/00223131.2015.1038331

Cite this

@article{ec9228bed0f0461cb75a7dfbe0e358b3,

title = "Experimental estimation of the delayed neutron fraction β eff of the MAESTRO core in the MINERVE zero power reactor",

abstract = "A method for determining the effective delayed neutron fraction βeff using in-pile reactivity oscillations and Fourier analysis is presented. This method is based on measurements of the reactor's power response to small periodic in-pile reactivity perturbations and utilizes Fourier analysis for reconstruction of the reactor zero power transfer function. This approach enables the estimation of βeff using multi-parameter nonlinear weighted least-squares fit. The method extends previous works by accounting for higher harmonics excitation in the frequency domain by the trapezoidal reactivity signal, both in the reactivity perturbation and in the reactor power response. We show that by using this new approach it is possible to obtain the reactor transfer function in a wide range of frequencies, using only a single oscillation frequency. This method is applied to a set of measurements of the MAESTRO core configuration in the MINERVE zero power reactor (ZPR) located at the Cadarache Research Center. The derived value of βeff, using this method, is 711 ± 17 pcm.",

keywords = "critical experiment, effective delayed neutron fraction, reactor kinetics, reactor physics, reactor safety, response function",

author = "Erez Gilad and Oleg Rivin and Hanania Ettedgui and Ilan Yaar and Benoit Geslot and Alexandra Pepino and {Di Salvo}, Jacques and Adrien Gruel and Patrick Blaise",

year = "2015",

month = aug,

day = "3",

doi = "10.1080/00223131.2015.1038331",

language = "English",

volume = "52",

pages = "1026--1033",

journal = "Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology",

issn = "0022-3131",

publisher = "Taylor and Francis Ltd.",

number = "7-8",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Experimental estimation of the delayed neutron fraction β eff of the MAESTRO core in the MINERVE zero power reactor

AU - Gilad, Erez

AU - Rivin, Oleg

AU - Ettedgui, Hanania

AU - Yaar, Ilan

AU - Geslot, Benoit

AU - Pepino, Alexandra

AU - Di Salvo, Jacques

AU - Gruel, Adrien

AU - Blaise, Patrick

PY - 2015/8/3

Y1 - 2015/8/3

N2 - A method for determining the effective delayed neutron fraction βeff using in-pile reactivity oscillations and Fourier analysis is presented. This method is based on measurements of the reactor's power response to small periodic in-pile reactivity perturbations and utilizes Fourier analysis for reconstruction of the reactor zero power transfer function. This approach enables the estimation of βeff using multi-parameter nonlinear weighted least-squares fit. The method extends previous works by accounting for higher harmonics excitation in the frequency domain by the trapezoidal reactivity signal, both in the reactivity perturbation and in the reactor power response. We show that by using this new approach it is possible to obtain the reactor transfer function in a wide range of frequencies, using only a single oscillation frequency. This method is applied to a set of measurements of the MAESTRO core configuration in the MINERVE zero power reactor (ZPR) located at the Cadarache Research Center. The derived value of βeff, using this method, is 711 ± 17 pcm.

AB - A method for determining the effective delayed neutron fraction βeff using in-pile reactivity oscillations and Fourier analysis is presented. This method is based on measurements of the reactor's power response to small periodic in-pile reactivity perturbations and utilizes Fourier analysis for reconstruction of the reactor zero power transfer function. This approach enables the estimation of βeff using multi-parameter nonlinear weighted least-squares fit. The method extends previous works by accounting for higher harmonics excitation in the frequency domain by the trapezoidal reactivity signal, both in the reactivity perturbation and in the reactor power response. We show that by using this new approach it is possible to obtain the reactor transfer function in a wide range of frequencies, using only a single oscillation frequency. This method is applied to a set of measurements of the MAESTRO core configuration in the MINERVE zero power reactor (ZPR) located at the Cadarache Research Center. The derived value of βeff, using this method, is 711 ± 17 pcm.

KW - critical experiment

KW - effective delayed neutron fraction

KW - reactor kinetics

KW - reactor physics

KW - reactor safety

KW - response function

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84933180952&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/00223131.2015.1038331

DO - 10.1080/00223131.2015.1038331

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84933180952

SN - 0022-3131

VL - 52

SP - 1026

EP - 1033

JO - Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology

JF - Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology

IS - 7-8

ER -