New Dosimetric Interpretation of the DV50 Vessel-Steel Experiment Irradiated in the OSIRIS MTR Reactor Using the Monte-Carlo Code TRIPOLI-4^®

Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Saclay Center, DEN/DANS/DM2S/SERMA, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France

^a Corresponding author: fadhel.malouch@cea.fr

Published online: 3 February 2016

Abstract

An irradiation program DV50 was carried out from 2002 to 2006 in the OSIRIS material testing reactor (CEA-Saclay center) to assess the pressure vessel steel toughness curve for a fast neutron fluence (E > 1 MeV) equivalent to a French 900-MWe PWR lifetime of 50 years. This program allowed the irradiation of 120 specimens out of vessel steel, subdivided in two successive irradiations DV50 n^∘1 and DV50 n^∘2. To measure the fast neutron fluence (E > 1 MeV) received by specimens after each irradiation, sample holders were equipped with activation foils that were withdrawn at the end of irradiation for activity counting and processing. The fast effective cross-sections used in the dosimeter processing were determined with a specific calculation scheme based on the Monte-Carlo code TRIPOLI-3 (and the nuclear data ENDF/B-VI and IRDF-90). In order to put vessel-steel experiments at the same standard, a new dosimetric interpretation of the DV50 experiment has been performed by using the Monte-Carlo code TRIPOLI-4 and more recent nuclear data (JEFF3.1.1 and IRDF-2002). This paper presents a comparison of previous and recent calculations performed for the DV50 vessel-steel experiment to assess the impact on the dosimetric interpretation.