THE RELATION BETWEEN CATCHER FOIL ACTIVITY AND FISSION RATE IN 93% ENRICHED URANIUM METAL

Technical Report · Fri May 13 04:00:00 EDT 1960

OSTI ID:4792204

Kunze, J F; Churchill, J W

The use of Al fission product catcher foils to power map and calibrate reactors requires that the activity aceumulated on the catcher foil be correlated with the actual fission rate in the U. Au foils, 5 mils thick, and 93% enriched U foils, of the same diameter and 1 mil thick with catcher foils attached, were given 20 minute exposures in the neutron flux in the water outside the reflector of the D101 critical experiment tank. The foils were counted in the TMC beta counting system at LPT. The Au foil counting efficiency was obtained from gamma ray spectrometer meas urements of the absolute disintegration rate of Au/sup 198/. The flux determined from the Au foil counts was used to compute the flux and the average fission rate in the 1 mil U foil. The conversion number obtained was 62.7 plus or minus 3.8 (fissions per second per gram of U/sup 235/) per (count per minute) from a 9/16 inch diameter catcher foil counted in the TMC counters 50 minutes after shutdown following a 20 minute exposure. The corresponding number for the PC/su b 3/ counter system is 57.3. The expected error is plus or minus 6%. These values agree satisfactorily with existing correlations to thermodynamic power measurements. (auth)

• Research Organization: General Electric Co. Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion Dept., Idaho Falls, Idaho
• DOE Contract Number: AT(11-1)-171
• NSA Number: NSA-16-010953
• OSTI ID: 4792204
• Report Number(s): DC-60-5-727
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ALUMINUM
BETA DETECTION
COUNTERS
DECAY
EFFICIENCY
ENRICHMENT
ERRORS
FILTERS
FISSION
FISSION PRODUCTS
FOILS
GAMMA SPECTROMETERS
GOLD 198
IRRADIATION
MEASURED VALUES
METALS
NEUTRON FLUX
PHYSICS
REACTORS
REFLECTORS
STANDARDS
THERMODYNAMICS
THICKNESS
URANIUM 235
VESSELS
WATER