Time-of-flight measurements of MINERVE samples containing fission products and neutron absorbing isotopes

¹ CEA, DES, IRESNE Cadarache, F-13108 Saint Paul Les Durances, France.
² European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Geel, Belgium.

^* e-mail: gilles.noguere@cea.fr

Published online: 26 May 2023

Abstract

The zero-power reactor MINERVE (CEA Cadarache) was designed to perform reactivity worth measurements by the oscillation technique. The various experimental programs, undertaken for the last thirty years, involved cylindrical samples with a diameter of about 1 cm and a height ranging from a few cm to 10 cm. Most of the samples are composed of UO₂ pellets mixed with a high neutron absorbing nuclide, i.e. fission product, actinide, in a double-sealed Zry-4 container. An experimental program started in 2015 in collaboration with the Joint Research Centre of Geel to study the MINERVE samples at the time-of-flight facility GELINA by the neutron transmission technique. The two main objectives consist of checking both the composition of the MINERVE samples provided by the manufacturer and the quality of the resonance parameters recommended in the evaluated neutron data library JEFF-3.3. The pioneer experiments on MINERVE samples containing ¹⁰⁷Ag and ¹⁰⁹Ag revealed a substantial Tungsten contamination that was not reported by the manufacturer. Such a Tungsten contamination is related to the manufacturing process of the sample pellets. The observed Tungsten contaminations lead to non-negligible increases of the C/E ratios up to a few percent. second experimental campaign on MINERVE samples containing ⁹⁹Tc provided useful insight on the quality of the ⁹⁹Tc resonance parameters measured at the GELINA facility at the end of the 90s. The ongoing program continuing through 2022 will deliver data for samarium (natural, 147, 149, 152), neodymium (natural,143,145), gadolinium (natural, 155), europium (151, 153), rhodium (103), cesium (133), hafnium (180), dysprosium (160, 161, 162, 163, 164) and erbium (168, 170). The present work focuses on the data analysis technique developed for long cylindrical samples with a diameter smaller than the neutron beam, and on the grain size distribution model implemented in the resonance shape analysis REFIT.