Prompt Neutron Decay for an Unreflected and Unmoderated Uranium (HEU) Metal Sphere

Conference · Mon Sep 16 00:00:00 EDT 1996

OSTI ID:378175

Mihalczo, J. T. ^[1]

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1. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Instrumentation and Controls Division, Measurement Science Section

Prompt neutron decay constants were measured for a delayed critical, unmoderated and unreflected U metal sphere at the Oak Ridge Critical Experiments Facility. Prompt neutron decay constant was 1.1095 ± 0.0013 μs^-1. This can be used to verify calculational methods, both deterministic and Monte Carlo neutron transport methods. This value is in agreement with the value from GODIVA I data corrected for effects of support structure (i.e., 1.10 ± 0.01 μs^-1) but has a much smaller error as a result of the large number (167) of the measurements here and the high degree of sphericity of the sphere.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Instrumentation and Controls Division, Measurement Science Section
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-96OR22464
• OSTI ID: 378175
• Report Number(s): CONF-960924-3; ON: DE96013788; TRN: 96:025548
• Resource Relation: Conference: PHYSOR '96: International Conference on the Physics of Reactors, Mito (Japan), 16-20 Sep 1996; Other Information: PBD: [1996]
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM
DECAY
PROMPT NEUTRONS
SPHERES
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
GODIVA I
Rossi-α
Monte Carlo Neutron Transport Methods
Reactor Physics Calculations
Pulsed Neutron Method