International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Research Applications and Utilization of Accelerators

4-8 May 2009, Vienna

Neutron Noise Measurements in the YALINA–Booster Experiments

C. Berglöf¹, M. Fernández-Ordóñez², D. Villamarín², V. Bécares², E.M. González-Romero², V. Bournos³, I. Serafimovich³, S. Mazanik³, and H. Kiyavitskaya³

¹KTH, Reactor Physics, Stockholm, Sweden
²Nuclear Innovation Group, CIEMAT, Madrid, Spain
³Joint Institute for Power and Nuclear Research, National Academy of Sciences, Minsk, Belarus

Corresponding Author: calle@neutron.kth.se

Measurement of neutron fluctuations plays an important role in determining reactor kinetic parameters. In addition to the pulsed neutron source measurements and the continuous source beam-trip measurements performed in the YALINA–Booster facility, also presented in this conference, a set of neutron noise measurements has been performed to achieve a complete characterization of the core. The neutron noise measurements have been performed in three different configurations covering a subcriticality range from 0.85 to 0.975. The Feynman-alpha and Rossi-alpha neutron noise techniques have been applied to detector counts from both the fast booster zone and the thermal zone. The neutron noise results are compared to the experimental prompt neutron decay constants obtained from the pulsed neutron source measurements.

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