Publication

Characterisation of radial reaction rate distributions across the 92-pin section of a SVEA-96 Optima2 assembly

Publications associées (32)

Atomic level insight into irradiation effects in nuclear fuel materials

Microstructural evolution during in-pile irradiation, radiation damage effects and fission products behavior in UO2 nuclear fuel are key issues in understanding and for the modeling of the performance as well as safety characteristics of nuclear fuels in t ...

EPFL2024

Gamma-ray Spectroscopy in Low-Power Nuclear Research Reactors

Andreas Pautz, Oskari Ville Pakari, Vincent Pierre Lamirand

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

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

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

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

Extension, validation, and optimization of Serpent/DYN3D/ATHLET code system for SFR applications

Vincenzo Anthony Di Nora

The sequence of codes Serpent/DYN3D has been developed by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf and successfully applied to core static and transient analyses of sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs). The successful application of the sequence to SFRs was ...

EPFL2023

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

Data-Driven Predictive Models: Calculational Bias in Characterization of Spent Nuclear Fuel

Characteristics of the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) are typically calculated, requiring validation a priori. The validation process relies on the difference between calculations and measurements, namely the bias. Usually, predicting the bias based on benchmark ...

EPFL2022

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

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

A concept for the extraction of the most refractory elements at CERN-ISOLDE as carbonyl complex ions

João Pedro Fernandes Pinto Ramos

We introduce a novel thick-target concept tailored to the extraction of refractory 4d and 5d transition metal radionuclides of molybdenum, technetium, ruthenium and tungsten for radioactive ion beam production. Despite the more than 60-year old history of ...

2022

Nuclear Excitation by Free Muon Capture

Fabrizio Carbone, Ivan Madan, Simone Gargiulo

Efficient excitation of nuclei via exchange of a real or virtual photon has a fundamental importance for nuclear science and technology development. Here, we present a mechanism of nuclear excitation based on the capture of a free muon into the atomic orbi ...

AMER PHYSICAL SOC2022

Interface Tracking Investigation of the Sliding Bubbles Effects on Heat Transfer in the Laminar Regime

Konstantin Mikityuk, Lubomír Bures

Helium gases are utilized to remove fission products from the molten salt fast reactor (MSFR) core during operation. Helium gases and other volatile fission products may be introduced into the intermediate heat exchanger channels. The effect of these gases ...

2022

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

Andreas Pautz, Oskari Ville Pakari, Vincent Pierre Lamirand

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

A Hybrid Approach to Neutron Transport with Thermal-hydraulic Feedback for Reactor Transient Analysis

Alexander Aures

Understanding the time-dependent behaviour of a nuclear reactor following an intended or unintended change of the reactor conditions is of crucial importance to the safe operation of nuclear reactors. Safety evaluations of nuclear reactors involve the anal ...

EPFL2021

Delayed gamma fraction determination in the zero power reactor CROCUS

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

Growth and viability of microorganisms in bentonite and their potential activity in deep geological repository environments

Niels Burzan

Radioactive waste is among the most dangerous anthropogenic waste and its safe disposal is a challenging multi-generational task. Many nations have sought for the peaceful application of nuclear fission for the reliable production of electric energy to pow ...

EPFL2021

Development of a Novel Finite Volume Methodology for Multi-Dimensional Fuel Performance Applications

Alessandro Scolaro

Fuel performance codes are an essential tool for ensuring the safe and economic opera-tion of nuclear reactors. Traditionally, these codes have been developed following a simple 1.5-D modelling approach, where the fuel behavior is simplified by assuming ax ...

EPFL2021

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

Pavel Frajtag, Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, 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

Modeling the response of a diamond detector in the zero power reactor CROCUS

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

The present manuscript documents the development of a practical calculation scheme to model the response of a diamond detector in the mixed (neutron and gamma) radiation field of the CROCUS experimental reactor at EPFL. The model is shown to perform reason ...

SPRINGER HEIDELBERG2021

Data assimilation of post irradiation examination experiments to adjust fission yields

Andreas Pautz, Daniel Jerôme Siefman, Mathieu Hursin

Nuclear data, especially fission yields, create uncertainties in the predicted concentrations of fission products in spent fuel. Herein, we present a new framework that extends data assimilation methods to burnup simulations by using data from post-irradia ...

E D P SCIENCES2020

Data assimilation of post-irradiation examination data for fission yields from GEF

Andreas Pautz, Daniel Jerôme Siefman, Mathieu Hursin, Dimitri Rochman

Nuclear data, especially fission yields, create uncertainties in the predicted concentrations of fission products in spent fuel which can exceed engineering target accuracies. Herein, we present a new framework that extends data assimilation methods to bur ...

EDP SCIENCES S A2020