SYMPOSIA PAPER Published: 01 January 1994
STP15105S

Special Dosimetry at Saint Laurent BL Mox-Loaded Unit

Source

A special highly instrumented surveillance capsule and dosimetry in the cavity along three generating lines were installed in the Electricité de France Saint Laurent Bl 900 MWe pressurized water reactor, and irradiated during the 1991–92 cycle. This instrumentation was presented at the Seventh ASTM-EURATOM Symposium in Strasbourg.

The reactor and cycle were chosen to be representative of balanced loading with mixed oxides UO2-PuO2 fuel (MOX), with the following objectives: -studying the effects of the MOX loading on the exposure of the capsule and vessel, -checking the disturbances of the axial distribution of the reaction rates of the dosimeters, caused by the barrel formers, -validation of the exposure calculations in the thickness of th vessel, -testing the Solid State Track Recorder technique compared with a dosimetry by activation in the cavity, -determining the maximum irradiation temperature of the capsule

Using the mean fission sources over the irradiation period, a TRIPOLI computation (with the ENDF-BVI library and the probability tables method) evaluates the measured parameters and the neutron spectra accompanied by their variance-covariance matrices, with a viev to adjusting these spectra.

The devices implemented are described. The instrumentation loading and unloading operations were performed successfully. The available results are given: MOX loading in the second periphery seems not to significantly change the exposure parameters, calculations slightly underestimate the reaction rates in the capsule and tend to overestimate them in the cavity.

Author Information

Bevilacqua, A
Direction des Réacteurs Nucléaires. Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires de Grenoble. SAPR, GRENOBLE
Lloret, R
Direction des Réacteurs Nucléaires. Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires de Grenoble. SAPR, GRENOBLE
Nimal, JC
Direction des Réacteurs Nucleaires. Centre d'Etudes de Saclay. SERMA/LEPP, Gif-sur-Yvette
Zengh, S
Direction des Réacteurs Nucleaires. Centre d'Etudes de Saclay. SERMA/LEPP, Gif-sur-Yvette
Rieg, C
Electricité de France. Service des Etudes et Projets Thermiques et Nucleaires, Villeurbanne
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Details
Developed by Committee: E10
Pages: 132–139
DOI: 10.1520/STP15105S
ISBN-EB: 978-0-8031-5281-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-8031-1899-7