Activation studies on ThO/sub 2/-containing slab assemblies driven by (D,T) neutrons
Most of the blanket designs of fusion breeders foresee the incorporation of thorium as an essential ingredient of the fissile breeding zone. The first blanket retained for experiments at the LOTUS facility is a fission-suppressed typed that includes a ThO/sub 2/ zone made of ThO/sub 2/ rods clad in aluminum. In the first phase of experiments completed, the spectrum measurements were done with a 2- x 2-in. NE-213 spectrometer located behind various slab assemblies derived from this blanket. A low-intensity beam was used in these experiments. The second phase consists of doing experiments on the same assemblies with the high-intensity Haefely generator. Both the activation foils and a small 1.3-cm-diam x 1.2-cm-high NE-213 detector placed inside an assembly are planned to be used. The analysis of the experiments has been done with the two-dimensional discrete ordinates code DOT3.5, which, in turn, gets the uncollided fluxes and the first collision source from the auxiliary code GRTUNCL. All the assemblies have been analyzed with a two-dimensional R-Z model, excluding room walls. All the measured reaction rates have been evaluated. Generally, the agreement is good between the measured and the computed values. However, there is a significant discrepancy for the foil located at the flat surface of the generator (position = -1.5 cm). This could come from the difference in the modeled and actual beam profile incident on the target (the detector position is so close to the target and thus is very sensitive to the details of the beam). At locations far from the target, however, the details of the beam profile would be less important. The /sup 115/In(n,n/sup 1/) to /sup 90/Zr(n,2n) activity ratios as a function of the detector position inside the ThO/sub 2/ assembly demonstrate good confidence in the thorium cross section and two-dimensional modeling. 10 refs., 3 fig.
- OSTI ID:
- 5807148
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8711195-
- Journal Information:
- Trans. Am. Nucl. Soc.; (United States), Vol. 55; Conference: American Nuclear Society winter meeting, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 15-19 Nov 1987
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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