Neutronic characteristics of lead in KUCA A core for accelerator-driven system

Sugawara, Takanori  ; Nishihara, Kenji  ; Iwamoto, Hiroki   ; Yagi, Takahiro*; Pyeon, C. H.*

An Accelerator-Driven System (ADS) has been investigated in Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to transmute minor actinides discharged from nuclear power plants. The ADS proposed by JAEA is a lead bismuth eutectic (LBE) cooled-tank-type ADS. It has been known that there was a major upgrade for the cross section data of lead isotopes from JENDL-3.3 to JENDL-4.0 and the upgrade affects to the neutronic design of the ADS. This study aims to measure replacement reactivity from aluminum plates to lead plates at KUCA (Kyoto University Critical Assembly) to know which nuclear data library, JENDL-3.3 or JENDL-4.0 is reasonable for the lead isotopes. As the result, the replacement reactivity from the aluminum plates to the lead ones was measured as the positive value and the calculation results indicated that the lead nuclear data in JENDL-4.0 might be more reasonable than those in JENDL-3.3.