Reactivity estimation based on the linear equation of characteristic time profile of power in subcritical quasi-steady state

Yamane, Yuichi

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 59(11), p.1331 - 1344, 2022/11

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2022.2053221

The reactivity was estimated from a time profile of neutron count rate or a simulated data in a quasi-steady state after sudden change of reactivity or external neutron source strength. The estimation was based on the equation of power in subcritical quasi-steady state. The purpose of the study is to develop the method of timely reactivity estimation from complicated time profile of neutron count rate. The developed method was applied to the data simulating neutron count rate created by using one-point kinetics code, AGNES, and Poisson-distributed random noise and to the transient subcritical experiment data measured by using TRACY. The result shows that the difference of the estimated and reference value was within about 5% or less for ( -1) for simulated data and within about 7% or less for -1.4 and -3.1 for the experimental data. It was also shown that the possibility of the reactivity estimation several ten seconds after the status change.

Application of linear combination method to pulsed neutron source measurement at Kyoto University Critical Assembly

Katano, Ryota; Yamanaka, Masao*; Pyeon, C. H.*

Nuclear Science and Engineering, 193(12), p.1394 - 1402, 2019/12

https://doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2019.1624084

The author proposed the linear combination method as a subcriticality measurement method which estimates the prompt neutron decay constant (alpha) correlated with the subcriticality using measurement results obtained at multiple detector positions. In this study, we conduct the pulsed neutron experiment at Kyoto University Critical Assembly (KUCA) and measure alpha by the linear combination method using measured neutron counts. Through experiment, we experimentally show that the linear combination method can reduce the higher-mode effect compared to the conventional method. In addition, experimentally show that the linear combination has capability of the different mode extraction.

Estimation method of prompt neutron decay constant reducing higher order mode effect by linear combination

Katano, Ryota

Nuclear Science and Engineering, 193(4), p.431 - 439, 2019/04

https://doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2018.1528803

We proposed "linear combination method" to reduce the higher order mode effect on the prompt neutron decay constant measured by the pulsed neutron experiment. When the spatial higher order mode effect is taken into account, the time evolution of the neutron counts after the pulsed neutron injection is given by linear combination of multiple exponential functions. However, the measurement results by the conventional method include the systematic error derived from the higher order mode effect because the conventional method fit the neutron counts with a single exponential function. The proposed method extract the single exponential function of the fundamental mode by linear combination of the neutron counts at multiple detectors, thus the proposed method reduces the higher order mode effect. As the verification, we applied the proposed method to the numerical simulation. The results indicate that the proposed method can reduce the higher order mode effect by linear combination.

Reactor physics experiments using transmutation physics experimental facility for research and development of accelerator-driven system

Iwamoto, Hiroki; Nishihara, Kenji; Sugawara, Takanori; Tsujimoto, Kazufumi; Sasa, Toshinobu; Maekawa, Fujio

no journal, ,