Estimation of exchange time for neutron startup sources of HTTR

Ono, Masato ; Kozawa, Takayuki; Fujimoto, Nozomu*

The High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor has a neutron source of Cf to start up the reactor and to confirm count rates of wide range monitors. The half-life of Cf is short, about 2.6 years, so it is necessary to replace at an appropriate time. In order to estimate the period to replace, it is necessary to consider not only the half-life but also the fluctuation of the count rate of the wide range monitor to prevent alarm. For that reason, the method has been derived to predict a minimum count rate from relationship between the count rate and the standard deviation of the count rate of the wide range monitors. As a result of predicting the count rate using this method, it was found that the minimum count rate reaches to 3.0cps in 2022 and 1.5 cps in 2024. Therefore, it is necessary to exchange Cf by 2024.