Development, calibration, and experimental results obtained with an innovative calorimeter (CALMOS) for nuclear heating measurements
- CEA, DEN, DRSN, SIREN, LASPI Saclay, F-91191 Gif Sur Yvette, (France)
Nuclear heating inside an MTR reactor has to be known in order to be able to control samples temperature during irradiation experiments. An R and D program has been carried out at CEA to design a new type of in-core calorimetric system. This new development, started in 2002, has for main objective to manufacture a calorimeter suitable to monitoring nuclear heating inside the 70 MWth OSIRIS material testing reactor operated by CEA's Nuclear Energy Division at the Saclay research center. An innovative calorimetric probe, associated to a specific handling system, has been designed to provide access to measurements both along the fissile height and on the upper part of the core, where nuclear heating still remains high. Two mock-ups of the probe were manufactured and tested in 2005 and 2009 in ex-core area of OSIRIS reactor for process validation, while a displacement system has been especially studied to move the probe along a given axial measurement range. This paper deals with the development, tests on preliminary mock-ups and the finalization of the probe. Main modeling and experimental results are presented. Moreover, alternative methods to calibration for nuclear heating rate measurements which are now possible with this new calorimeter are presented and discussed. (authors)
- OSTI ID:
- 22274003
- Journal Information:
- IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 59, Issue 4; Other Information: Country of input: France; 8 refs.; This record replaces 45095236; ISSN 0018-9499
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
First in-core simultaneous measurements of nuclear heating and thermal neutron flux obtained with the innovative mobile calorimeter CALMOS inside the OSIRIS reactor
CALMOS: Innovative device for the measurement of nuclear heating in material testing reactors