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Publications in Scientific Journals:

R. Khan, S. Karimzadeh, H. Böck:
"TRIGA fuel burn-up calculations and its confirmation";
Nuclear Engineering and Design, 240 (2010), 1043 - 1049.



English abstract:
The Cesium (Cs-137) isotopic concentration due to irradiation of TRIGA Fuel Elements FE(s) is calculated
and measured at the Atominstitute (ATI) of Vienna University of Technology (VUT). The Cs-137 isotope, as
proved burn-up indicator, was applied to determine the burn-up of the TRIGA Mark II research reactor FE.
This article presents the calculations and measurements of the Cs-137 isotope and its relevant burn-up of
six selected Spent Fuel Elements SPE(s). High-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy based non-destructive
method is employed to measure spent fuel parameters. By the employment of this method, the axial
distribution of Cesium-137 for six SPE(s) is measured, resulting in the axial burn-up profiles. Knowing
the exact irradiation history and material isotopic inventory of an irradiated FE, six SPE(s) are selected
for on-site gamma scanning using a special shielded scanning device developed at the ATI. This unique
fuel inspection unit allows to scan each millimeter of the FE. For this purpose, each selected FE was
transferred to the fuel inspection unit using the standard fuel transfer cask. Each FE was scanned at a
scale of 1 cm of its active length and the Cs-137 activity was determined as proved burn-up indicator.
The measuring system consists of a high-purity germanium detector (HPGe) together with suitable fast
electronics and on-line PC data acquisition module. The absolute activity of each centimeter of the FE
was measured and compared with reactor physics calculations. The ORIGEN2, a one-group depletion
and radioactive decay computer code, was applied to calculate the activity of the Cs-137 and the burnup
of selected SPE. The deviation between calculations and measurements was in range from 0.82% to
12.64%.
© 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


"Official" electronic version of the publication (accessed through its Digital Object Identifier - DOI)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2010.01.009

Electronic version of the publication:
http://publik.tuwien.ac.at/files/PubDat_186196.pdf


Created from the Publication Database of the Vienna University of Technology.