NUCLEAR DATA NEEDS FOR ADVANCED REACTOR SYSTEMS. A NEA NUCLEAR SCIENCE COMMITTEE INITIATIVE.

The Working Party on Evaluation Cooperation (WPEC) of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency Nuclear Science Committee has established an International Subgroup to perform an activity in order to develop a systematic approach to define data needs for Gen-IV and, in general, for advanced reactor systems. A methodology, based on sensitivity analysis has been agreed and representative core configurations for Sodium, Gas and Lead cooled Fast Reactors (SFR, GFR, LFR) have been defined as well as a high burn-up VHTR and a high burn-up PWR. In the case of SFRs, both a TRU burner (called in fact SFR) and a core configuration with homogeneous recycling of not separated TRU (called EFR) have been considered

Characterization method of dielectric properties of free falling drops in a microwave processing cavity and its application in microwave internal gelation

[EN] Microwave internal gelation (MIG) is a chemical process proposed for the production of nuclear particle fuel. The internal gelation reaction is triggered by a temperature increase of aqueous droplets falling by gravity by means of non-contact microwave heating. Due to the short residence time of a solution droplet in a microwave heating cavity, a detailed knowledge of the interaction between microwaves and chemical solution (shaped in small drops) is required. This paper describes a procedure that enables the measurement of the dielectric properties of aqueous droplets that freely fall through a microwave cavity. These measurements provide the information to determine the optimal values of the parameters (such as frequency and power) that dictate the heating of such a material under microwaves.This work is a part of the PINE (Platform for Innovative Nuclear FuEls) project which targets the development of an advanced production method for Sphere-Pac fuel and is financed by the Swiss Competence Center for Energy and Mobility. The work has been also financed by the European Commission through contract no 295664 regarding the FP7 PELGRIMM Project, as well as contract no 295825 regarding the FP7-ASGARD Project. MC-S would like to thank the ITACA research team (UPV Valencia, Spain) and the EMPA Thun (Switzerland) for their support in the measurements and Carl Beard (PSI, Switzerland) for the help provided in respect with CST simulations. The work of FLP-F was supported by the Conselleria d'Educacio of the Generalitat Valenciana for economic support (BEST/2012/010).Cabanes Sempere, M.; Catalá Civera, JM.; Penaranda-Foix, FL.; Cozzo, C.; Vaucher, S.; Pouchon, MA. (2013). Characterization method of dielectric properties of free falling drops in a microwave processing cavity and its application in microwave internal gelation. Measurement Science and Technology. 24(9). https://doi.org/10.1088/0957-0233/24/9/095009S24

The CIELO collaboration: Progress in international evaluations of neutron reactions on Oxygen, Iron, Uranium and Plutonium

The CIELO collaboration has studied neutron cross sections on nuclides that significantly impact criticality in nuclear technologies – 16O, 56Fe, 235,8U and 239Pu – with the aim of improving the accuracy of the data and resolving previous discrepancies in our understanding. This multi-laboratory pilot project, coordinated via the OECD/NEA Working Party on Evaluation Cooperation (WPEC) Subgroup 40 with support also from the IAEA, has motivated experimental and theoretical work and led to suites of new evaluated libraries that accurately reflect measured data and also perform well in integral simulations of criticality

Irradiation of structure material in spallation neutron sources.

In principle, intense spallation neutron sources can be used not only to irradiate materials (e.g. window materials) and to validate different target geometries/concepts, but also to irradiate structural materials (samples, pins or even full assemblies) in order to characterize their behavior under irradiation (in a fast neutron field). However, a question arises concerning the ''representativity'' of such irradiations to reproduce the conditions encountered in a typical fast reactor. The present paper documents an investigation aimed at understanding phenomena related to the representativity of an irradiation using an intense spallation source, with regards to neutron damage and Helium production. Two different designs of a spallation neutron source are considered. The first is an Intense Spallation Neutron Source (ISNS) proposed at CEA, France as a potential irradiation tool. The second is one of the current models for the TMT (Target for Material Testing) of the ADTF (Accelerator Driven Test Facility) program. In our calculations we used the MCNPX Version 2.1.5 Monte Carlo code

Physics study of the TRADE : TRIGA accelerator driven experiment.

This report deals with the validation of an ADS dynamic behavior through the TRADE program. We first describe the motivations behind the TRADE project. This includes the types of ADS experiments to be performed and their necessity, beam trips issues, representativity of the experiment, and steps to be taken in the validation procedure. Then we perform the characterization of the TRADE core using deterministic methods. The general core description is given. A number of results related to the core criticality and modeling with different geometries are presented. Finally we report the experimental results of the recent critical measurements including the control rod calibration, determination of the critical configurations and fluxes in the core