Publications related to Thorium-based nuclear power

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

Experimental study and interpretative modelling of the Power Exhaust in Configurations with Multiple X-Points in TCV

Sophie Danielle Angelica Gorno

Nuclear fusion presents a promising clean energy source to mitigate future energy crises, with magnetic confinement fusion well-positioned to provide a baseload scenario to power future reactors. The unmitigated power exhaust of such reactors threatens its ...

EPFL2024

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

Monte Carlo analysis of BWR geometries using a cycle check-up methodology

Mathieu Hursin, Hakim Ferroukhi, Dimitri Rochman, Abdelhamid Dokhane, Alexander Vasiliev

Recent fuel anomalies at a Swiss power plant have motivated the development at PSI of the "Cycle Check-Up" (CHUP) methodology which consists in performing Monte Carlo transport calculations using nuclide compositions and thermal-hydraulic boundary conditio ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2023

On the development of multi-physics tools for nuclear reactor analysis based on OpenFOAM (R): state of the art, lessons learned and perspectives

Carlo Fiorina

In the last two decades, the use of OpenFOAM as a multi-physics library for nuclear applications has grown from a sporadic use for exploratory studies to a widespread application for the analysis of innovative reactor concepts and highly complex problems. ...

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA2022

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

Dosimetry modeling and experimental validation for the PETALE program in the CROCUS reactor

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Pavel Frajtag, Axel Guy Marie Laureau

The PETALE experimental program in the CROCUS reactor intends to provide integral measurements on reactivity worth and dosimetry measurement to constrain nuclear data relative to stainless steel heavy reflectors. The experimental setup consists in eight su ...

2021

Delayed gamma fraction determination in the zero power reactor CROCUS

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

Gamma rays are an inextricable part of a nuclear reactor's radiation field, and as such require characterization for dose rate estimations required for the radiation protection of personnel, material choices, and the design of nuclear facilities. Most comm ...

EDP SCIENCES S A2021

Review of kinetic modulation experiments in low power nuclear reactors

Vincent Pierre Lamirand

The safety improvement of nuclear reactors requires continuous efforts in understanding the fundamental physical quantities related to the fission process. In neutronic models, the reactor dynamics is covered by the kinetic parameters to characterize the t ...

2020

Measurement of the Gas Velocity in a Water-Air Mixture in CROCUS Using Neutron Noise Techniques

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

The possibility of measuring the gas-phase velocity in a two-phase mixture through the use of neutron noise techniques is demonstrated in the zero-power reactor CROCUS of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. It is the first step toward the experim ...

TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC2020

The EQL0D fuel cycle procedure and its application to the transition to equilibrium of selected molten salt reactor designs

Boris Aviv Hombourger, Andreas Pautz, Jiri Krepel

In recent years, Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs), one of the Generation IV concepts, have noticeably gained in interest. Several molten salt reactor types use fuel in liquid form, bringing various advantages, notably in terms of fuel cycle. However, simulating ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2020

Design and Simulation of Gamma Spectrometry Experiments in the CROCUS Reactor

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Mathieu Hursin, Oskari Ville Pakari, Fanny Vitullo

Gamma rays in nuclear reactors, arising either from fission or decay processes, significantly contribute to the heating and dose of the reactor components. Zero power research reactors offer the possibility to measure gamma rays in a purely neutronic envir ...

E D P SCIENCES2020

Transient fission matrix approach for assessing complex kinetics behavior in the ZEPHYR ZPR coupled core configurations

Axel Guy Marie Laureau

CEA is currently working on a new ZPR called ZEPHYR (Zero power Experimental PHYsics Reactor), to be built on the Cadarache Center in the next decade. Its awaited experimental capacities should go well beyond traditional needs, and in particular extended p ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2019

GEN-FOAM: An OpenFOAM (R)-Based Multi-physics Solver for Nuclear Reactor Analysis

Carlo Fiorina

A multi-physics solver for nuclear reactor analysis, named GeN-Foam (Generalized Nuclear Foam), has been developed by the Laboratory for Reactor Physics and System Behavior at the EPFL and at the Paul Scherrer Institut (Switzerland). The developed solver c ...

SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG2019

Reactor simulations with nuclear data uncertainties

Andreas Pautz, Winfried Zwermann, Friederike Bostelmann, Alexander Aures

The paper demonstrates the influence of uncertainties in microscopic nuclear data on the results of reactor simulations, both for stationary and transient states. It gives an overview on the methods in use for uncertainty and sensitivity analyses with resp ...

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA2019

High-Fidelity Determination of Nuclide Inventories for Radioactive Waste Disposal

Valentyn Bykov

The general license application (RBG) for the Swiss deep geological repository will be submitted in 2024. Furthermore, the decommissioning of the nuclear power plants (NPPs) is coming soon, with the Mühleberg NPP (KKM) scheduled to shut down in 2019. In su ...

EPFL2019

Conceptual Design of a Sustainable Waste Burning Molten Salt Reactor

Boris Aviv Hombourger

For an energy source to qualify as sustainable, it must maximize the efficiency with which it uses natural resources while minimizing the amounts of waste it produces. Currently deployed nuclear power plants however use a very limited amount of the energy ...

EPFL2018

Investigation of spatial effects on neutron noise measurements in the zero power reactor CROCUS

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

This article presents the results of an experimental campaign in the CROCUS zero power reactor aimed at investigating the spatial effects of neutron noise measurements. Neutron noise measurements offer a non-invasive method to determine kinetic reactor par ...

American Nuclear Society2018

Testing of a sCVD diamond detection system in the CROCUS reactor

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Mathieu Hursin, Pavel Frajtag

The paper describes the testing of the NEUTON detection system into CROCUS, the zero-power reactor of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). NEUTON is composed of a 4mm×4 mm sCVD diamond detector with a 6Li converter and the associated acquis ...

2018

Intercomparison of neutron noise measurement systems in the CROCUS reactor

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

In the framework of an international collaboration, the critical decay constant (α0 = β/Λ), and delayed neutron fraction (β) of the CROCUS reactor were measured by teams of EPFL/PSI, CEA and SCK•CEN research institutes using the Rossi-α and Power Spectral ...

American Nuclear Society2018