Abstract
The Portuguese Research Reactor (RPI) is a 1 MW swimming pool type reactor, operating since the early 1960s. The fuel is MTR type, with flat plates of U-Al alloy enriched to 93% in 235U. As the core configuration changed in April 2000, it became essential to characterise the neutron field in the most useful irradiation positions of RPI, in order to guarantee the accuracy in the application of k 0-neutron activation analysis (k 0-NAA). Experimental values of the thermal to epithermal neutron flux ratio (f) and of the deviation of the epithermal neutron spectrum from the 1/E shape (a) were determined using the ‘Cd-ratio for multi-monitor’ method. The neutron temperature (T n) was obtained from co-irradiation of Lu with ‘1/v’ monitors. The results for several irradiation positions are presented and discussed in this work. Some element concentrations are determined based on the parameters obtained in this work, and compared with the certified reference material concentrations.
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Mustra, C.O., Freitas, M.C. & Almeida, S.M. Neutron flux and associated k0 parameters in the RPI after the last configuration change. Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry 257, 539–543 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025432329915
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025432329915