Reanalysis of the gas-cooled fast reactor experiments at the zero power facility proteus - Spectral indices
- Paul Scherrer Inst., 5232 Villigen (Switzerland)
- Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne (Switzerland)
The gas-cooled fast reactor (GCFR) concept was investigated experimentally in the PROTEUS zero power facility at the Paul Scherrer Inst. during the 1970's. The experimental program was aimed at neutronics studies specific to the GCFR and at the validation of nuclear data in fast spectra. A significant part of the program used thorium oxide and thorium metal fuel either distributed quasi-homogeneously in the reference PuO{sub 2}/UO{sub 2} lattice or introduced in the form of radial and axial blanket zones. Experimental results obtained at the time are still of high relevance in view of the current consideration of the Gas-cooled Fast Reactor (GFR) as a Generation-IV nuclear system, as also of the renewed interest in the thorium cycle. In this context, some of the experiments have been modeled with modern Monte Carlo codes to better account for the complex PROTEUS whole-reactor geometry and to allow validating recent continuous neutron cross-section libraries. As a first step, the MCNPX model was used to test the JEFF-3.1, JEFF-3.1.1, ENDF/B-VII.0 and JENDL-3.3 libraries against spectral indices, notably involving fission and capture of {sup 232}Th and {sup 237}Np, measured in GFR-like lattices. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, Inc., 555 N. Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, Illinois 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22105744
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: PHYSOR 2012: Conference on Advances in Reactor Physics - Linking Research, Industry, and Education, Knoxville, TN (United States), 15-20 Apr 2012; Other Information: Country of input: France; 17 refs.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
FAST REACTORS
FISSION
GAS COOLED REACTORS
GEOMETRY
MONTE CARLO METHOD
NEPTUNIUM 237
NEUTRONS
NUCLEAR DATA COLLECTIONS
PLUTONIUM OXIDES
RESEARCH REACTORS
THORIUM
THORIUM 232
THORIUM CYCLE
THORIUM OXIDES
URANIUM DIOXIDE
ZERO POWER REACTORS