Evaluation of the concrete shield compositions from the 2010 criticality accident alarm system Benchmark experiments at the CEA VALDUC silene facility - 14454
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P. O. Box 2008, MS-6170 Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831 (United States)
- Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives - Centre de Valduc, Service de Recherche en Neutronique et Criticite, 21120 Is sur Tille (France)
- Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives - Centre de Saclay, DEN/DANS/DM2S/SERMA, 91191 Gif sur Yvette Cedex (France)
- Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives - Centre de Saclay, DEN/DANS/DM2S/SERMA, CEA/DEN/DADN/GIP, 91191 Gif sur Yvette Cedex (France)
- Cavendish Nuclear Limited, 2100 Daresbury Park Daresbury, Warrington, WA4 4HS (United Kingdom)
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P. O. Box 808, Livermore, California 94551 (United States)
- Y-12 National Security Complex, P. O. Box 2009, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831 (United States)
In October 2010, a series of benchmark experiments were conducted at the French Commissariat a l'energie Atomique et aux energies Alternatives (CEA) Valduc SILENE facility. These experiments were a joint effort between the United States Department of Energy Nuclear Criticality Safety Program and the CEA. The purpose of these experiments was to create three benchmarks for the verification and validation of radiation transport codes and evaluated nuclear data used in the analysis of criticality accident alarm systems. This series of experiments consisted of three single-pulsed experiments with the SILENE reactor. For the first experiment, the reactor was bare (unshielded), whereas in the second and third experiments, it was shielded by lead and polyethylene, respectively. The polyethylene shield of the third experiment had a cadmium liner on its internal and external surfaces, which vertically was located near the fuel region of SILENE. During each experiment, several neutron activation foils and thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) were placed around the reactor. Nearly half of the foils and TLDs had additional high-density magnetite concrete, high-density barite concrete, standard concrete, and/or BoroBond shields. CEA Saclay provided all the concrete, and the US Y-12 National Security Complex provided the BoroBond. Measurement data from the experiments were published at the 2011 International Conference on Nuclear Criticality (ICNC 2011) and the 2013 Nuclear Criticality Safety Division (NCSD 2013) topical meeting. Preliminary computational results for the first experiment were presented in the ICNC 2011 paper, which showed poor agreement between the computational results and the measured values of the foils shielded by concrete. Recently the hydrogen content, boron content, and density of these concrete shields were further investigated within the constraints of the previously available data. New computational results for the first experiment are now available that show much better agreement with the measured values. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 23100901
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ICNC 2015: 2015 International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety, Charlotte, NC (United States), 13-17 Sep 2015; Other Information: Country of input: France; 14 refs.; available on CD Rom from American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (US)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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