Program Listings

IM1 Reseach reactor detection and measurement

Sunday, Nov. 1 09:00-10:45 Pacific Salon 3

Session Chair: Abdallah Lyoussi, CEA / French Atomic Energy Commission, France

(09:00) IM1-1, Introduction of the workshop Instrumentation and Measurement Methods in Nuclear Environments

A. Lyoussi

CEA DEN, Cadarache, France

An introduction of the workshop Instrumentation and Measurement Methods in Nuclear Environments 9h00-9h15 Instrumentation and Measurement Methods in Nuclear Environments Instrumentation and Measurement Methods in Nuclear Environments

(09:15) IM1-2, Neutrons For Science: Detection Techniques And Data Acquisition Systems At The Institut Laue-‐Langevin

P. Mutti

ILL, Grenoble, France

The basic role of any data acquisition system is to obtain a numerical and/or graphical representation of the events arriving at the detector and to store them on a non-volatile support. Moreover, the increasing complexity of the measurements, requiring accurate synchronization of several devices, shows clearly the need of a high level of integration between the acquisition electronics and the rest of the equipment in use on the instrument during an experiment. A variety of acquisition modes, ranging from the simple integral count on single or multi-detectors to Time- of-Flight and Kinetic modes, are standard applications on different instruments at the Institut Laue-Langevin. Those, together with the development of new measurement techniques like the Time Resolved Small Angle Neutron Experiment (TISANE), the Light-induced modulation or all those experiments requiring phase locking to the incident neutron pulses, are only a few examples of applications requiring high timing accuracy. On the other hand, very high data rate and the best possible energy resolution are fundamental ingredients for state-of-art gamma-ray spectroscopy. The use of large arrays of High Purity Germanium detectors (HPGe) often coupled with anti-Compton active shielding to reduce the ambient background increases the complexity of the required instrumentation. The possibility of handling such a complex system using traditional analogue electronics has shown rapidly its limitation. Nowadays, fully digital pulse processing systems are available, with performances equal when not better than the corresponding analogue chains. The presentation will cover different aspects the R&D activity on both neutron/gamma detection and data acquisition systems from high accuracy timing to the handling of extreme event rates.

(10:00) IM1-3, Jules Horowitz Reactor: presentation of the experimental capacity

C. Blandin

RJH, CEA DEN, Cadarache, France

On behalf of the RJH team

The Jules Horowitz Reactor (JHR) is a high performance Material Testing Reactor under construction in southern France (CEA/Cadarache research centre), that will carry out experimental irradiations for Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) and fuel vendors, utilities, safety organizations and research institutes. Therefore CEA is developing a set of test devices that will be operational for the start up of the reactor or few years later. Experimental devices for fuel irradiations Experimental programs could be related to either fuel basis properties acquisition, mastering of margins or improvement of fuel products (clad and pellet), in term of performance, safety, maximum burn up, innovative materials or extension of validation domain of fuel performance codes. Then the present paper will describe the main experimental hosting systems currently under design: • The MADISON test device will be available at the JHR start up, and will allow testing the comparative behavior of several instrumented fuel rods (between 1 to 8 rods of up to 60 cm fissile stack height) under NPP normal operating conditions (no clad failure expected). • The ADELINE test device will be available for the JHR start up, and will allow testing a single experimental rod up to its operating limits. The fuel rod will be tested under conditions that correspond to off-normal situations with possible occurrence of a clad failure. The first version so called ADELINE “power ramps” will focus on the clad failure occurrence during one of these abnormal situations (typically power ramps up to 620 W/cm at a rate up to 700 W/cm.min). • The LORELEI test device will be available few years after the reactor start up and will allow testing a single rod under accidental situation that may lead to fuel damage. It will be able to reproduce all sequences of a LOCA-type transient, including the re-irradiation, the loss of coolant and the quenching phases, on a separate effect approach.