Publications related to Neutron activation analysis

Innovative dud detection based on JET DT experience

DT operations at JET gave a unique and invaluable opportunity to design, develop and test real -time controllers that will be applied in future burning plasma devices, as ITER and SPARC. Among them, the dud detector [L. Piron et al. 2019 Fusion Eng. Design ...

Elsevier Science Sa2024

Neutron-Gamma Noise Measurements in a Zero-Power Reactor Using Organic Scintillators

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Oskari Ville Pakari

Noise measurements in light water reactor systems aid in generating validation data for integral point kinetic parameter predictions and generating monitoring parameters for reactor safety and safeguards. The CROCUS zero-power reactor has been used to supp ...

Ieee-Inst Electrical Electronics Engineers Inc2024

Gamma-ray Spectroscopy in Low-Power Nuclear Research Reactors

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Oskari Ville Pakari

Gamma-ray spectroscopy is an effective technique for radioactive material characterization, routine inventory verification, nuclear safeguards, health physics, and source search scenarios. Gamma-ray spectrometers typically cannot be operated in the immedia ...

MDPI2024

DEMO toroidal field coil fast discharge unit integration studies

Roberto Guarino, Alberto Ferro

The Fast Discharge Units (FDUs) of the Superconducting (SC) Toroidal Field (TF) coils in the European demonstration fusion power plant DEMO warrant the machine integrity over its full lifetime against severe failure events, such as SC coil quenches or any ...

Elsevier Science Sa2024

High brightness neutron source optimized for very high pulsed magnetic field experiments

Mina Akhyani

Conducting neutron scattering experiments in the presence of high pulsed magnetic fields, namely above 40 T, provides valuable information about the magnetic structures of materials. However, these experiments are challenging and time-consuming because the ...

EPFL2024

Gamma-Blind Fast Neutron Detection for Spent Nuclear Fuel Characterization

Alexander Wolfertz

In this thesis, the development and testing of a system for measuring the axial distribution of fast neutron emission of spent nuclear fuel rods is presented. Emphasis is placed on the novel fast neutron detector used which can reliably work in extremely h ...

EPFL2023

Analysis of the preliminary campaign for the PETALE program

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Thomas Jean-François Ligonnet, Axel Guy Marie Laureau

The PETALE program aims to provide new experimental data to constrain the stainless steel nuclear data. In this frame, a preliminary measurement campaign has been performed to characterize the neutron flux in key positions of the CROCUS reactor and to deve ...

EDP SCIENCES S A2023

Regressive Tomography and Direct Regressive Reconstruction: A Research Note

Henri Weisen

Two related methods for inverting line-integrated measurements are presented in this research paper in the context of the recent deuterium-tritium experiments in the JET tokamak. Unlike traditional methods of tomography, these methods rely on making use of ...

2023

Characterization of High Harmonic Frequencies in Reactor Noise Experiments Within the CORTEX Project

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand

We present a novel technique of neutron noise detection and experimental data interpretation developed during the EU H2020 project CORTEX aiming to improve the capabilities for identification and localization of neutron noise sources. The experimental data ...

2022

Miniature and Minimalistic Neutron Detectors for Online High-Resolution Experiments in the Zero-Power Reactor CROCUS

Fanny Vitullo

The continuous strive for more efficient and reliable nuclear power plants is leading to increasing complexity in the design and operations of reactors. As a consequence, comprehensive analyses are required to assess the reactor's safety during normal and ...

EPFL2022

High accuracy measurement of the prompt neutron decay constant in CROCUS using Gamma Noise and bootstrapped uncertainties

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Oskari Ville Pakari, Pavel Frajtag, Tom Mager

We experimentally demonstrate the advantages of gamma detection for noise measurements to deter-mine the prompt neutron decay constant a of a nuclear reactor using the power spectral density (PSD) method, coupled to a new uncertainty estimation scheme base ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2022

Investigation and Validation of Unstructured Mesh Methodologies for Modeling Experimental Reactors

Andreas Pautz, Mathieu Hursin, Carlo Fiorina, Tom Mager

This paper summarizes a methodology developed at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne for the neutronic modeling of the CROCUS experimental reactor and proposes solutions to the challenges one may face while modeling a research reactor with a complex g ...

MDPI2022

The Pristine survey - XV. A CHIT ESPaDOnS view on the Milky Way halo and disc populations

Pascale Jablonka, Willem Suter, Carmela Lardo, Romain Ely Roland Lucchesi

We present a one-dimensional, local thermodynamic equilibrium homogeneous analysis of 132 stars observed at high resolution with ESPaDOnS. This represents the largest sample observed at high resolution (R similar to 40 000) from the Pristine survey. This s ...

OXFORD UNIV PRESS2022

Delayed Hydride Cracking in Irradiated and Unirradiated Zircaloy-2 Cladding

Aaron William Colldeweih

Zirconium alloys used in the nuclear industry are exposed to extreme conditions undergoing high levels of irradiation damage and corrosion. Zircaloy-2 is used as nuclear fuel cladding in boiling water reactors and for the encapsulation of the spallation ta ...

EPFL2022

Towards the Validation of Noise Experiments in the CROCUS Reactor Using the TRIPOLI-4 Monte Carlo Code in Analog Mode

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Oskari Ville Pakari

Intrinsic neutron noise experiments offer a non-invasive manner to measure the prompt decay constant or reactivity of fissile systems. Using the fluctuations in the density of fission chains, one can infer the kinetics parameters via correlation analysis s ...

2021

Neutronics Analyses of EU DEMO 2020 EC Port Configuration

Minh Quang Tran, René Chavan

The DEMOnstration fusion power plant (DEMO) is being developed within EUROfusion and one of the challenges is the integration of all the systems into a fusion reactor by designs that meet strict design criteria required for safe and reliable long-term reac ...

NUCLEAR SOCIETY SLOVENIA2021

Optimization of multi-group energy structures for diffusion analyses of sodium-cooled fast reactors assisted by simulated annealing - Part I: Methodology demonstration

Konstantin Mikityuk, Vincenzo Anthony Di Nora

This study presents an approach to the selection of optimal energy group structures for multi-group nodal diffusion analyses of Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor cores. The goal is to speed up calculations, particularly in transient calculations, while maintainin ...

2021

Experimental validation of an integrated modelling approach to neutron emission studies at JET

Henri Weisen

An integrated modelling methodology for the calculation of realistic plasma neutron sources for the JET tokamak has been developed. The computational chain comprises TRANSP plasma transport and DRESS neutron spectrum calculations, and their coupling to the ...

IOP Publishing Ltd2021

Validation of axial void profile measured by neutron noise techniques in CROCUS

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Mathieu Hursin, Oskari Ville Pakari, Pavel Frajtag

Recently a joint project has been carried out between the Paul Scherrer Institut, the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne and swissnuclear, an industrial partner, in order to determine the axial void distribution in a channel installed in the reflecto ...

2021

Systematic investigations of uranium carbide composites oxidation from micro- to nano-scale: Application to waste disposal

Nhât-Tân Vuong

The production of radioisotope beams at the ISOLDE (Isotope Separator OnLine DEvice) facility at CERN is achieved by irradiating target materials (e.g. uranium carbides and metal foils) with protons. The materials are usually operated at temperatures above ...

EPFL2021