Predictions of Displacement Damage and Count Rate for SiC Detectors in IRIS
- The Ohio State University, Nuclear Engineering Program, Columbus OH, 43202 (United States)
- Westinghouse Electric Company, Monroeville PA, 15146 (United States)
Silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductor diode detectors may be useful as neutron power monitors in the International Reactor Innovative and Secure (IRIS) nuclear reactor, due to their very high band-gap (which allows high temperature operation and also mitigates many of the effects of radiation damage) and their small volume (which allows high fluence rate operation and detector redundancy). Pulse mode operation is envisioned in order to discriminate gamma-ray events from neutron events, in which case operation at high count rates is necessary to quickly sense and respond to fast transients. We are designing a power monitoring system for IRIS based on SiC diode detectors. This paper discusses the choice of locations for the SiC detectors in IRIS considering accessibility of the location, detector count rate and radiation damage rate. The IRIS reactor was modeled in 3-dimensions in MCNP, accounting for radial and axial variations of the core power distribution. The neutron flux distribution was calculated as functions of axial location for four radii in the downcomer region (155 cm, 170 cm, 185 cm, and 200 cm). We used these data to predict the detector count rate and the 1 MeV equivalent neutron flux in SiC. We predict that the 1 MeV equivalent neutron flux in SiC varies from 9.2 E+10 to 4.6 E+08 cm{sup -2}s{sup -1}, and the triton count rate varies from 1.8 E+05 cps to 5.0 E+02 cps, as the detector radial location is varied from 155 cm to 200 cm. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21021111
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 2006 International congress on advances in nuclear power plants - ICAPP'06, Reno - Nevada (United States), 4-8 Jun 2006; Other Information: Country of input: France; 13 refs; Related Information: In: Proceedings of the 2006 international congress on advances in nuclear power plants - ICAPP'06, 2734 pages.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Evaluation of SiC semiconductor diode detector degradation in a fast neutron flux
TREAT Fuel Motion Summary Report. SETH A-E Experiments