MeasurementofkineticparametersinthefastsubcriticalcoreMASURCAOriginalResearchArticle

IntheMUSEsharedcostactionoftheEuropeanFifthFrameworkProgrammeasurementshavebeenperformedtoinvestigatetheneutronicbehaviorofthefastsubcriticalcoreMASURCAcoupledwiththeGENEPIaccelerator.Theaimistoexaminetheapplicabilityofdifferentmeasurementtechniquesforthedeterminationofthemainkineticparameters.ThemeasurementofRossi-alphadistributions,recordedwiththeacceleratorturnedoff,showedthattheanalysisoftheobtaineddistributionsisfeasiblefordeepsubcriticallevels,butwithstronglydeterioratedstatistics.FromRossi-alphadistributions,recordedwiththepulsedneutronsourceinoperation,thealphadecayconstantwaseasilyderivedduetogoodstatisticsonthecorrelatedsignalresultingfromthestrongintensityoftheneutronpulse.Whenapplyingthepulsedneutronsourceanalysis,thereactivity(indollars)togetherwiththeratioofthemeanneutronlifetimelandtheeffectivedelayedneutronfractionβeffisimmediatelyderived.Althoughthesefirstresultsareverypromising,furthermeasurementsareneededtoqualifythemethodatlargersubcriticallevelswhicharerepresentativeforfutureADS.