Changes to Irradiation Conditions of VVER-1000 Surveillance Specimens Resulting from Fuel Assemblies with Greater Fuel Height

Abstract

The goal of the work was to obtain experimental data on the influence of newtype fuel assemblies with higher fuel rods on the irradiation conditions of surveillance specimens installed on the baffe of VVER-1000. For this purpose, two surveillance sets with container assemblies of the same design irradiated in reactors with different fuel assemblies in the core were investigated. Measurements of neutron dosimeters from these sets and retrospective measurements of 54Mn activity accumulated in each irradiated specimen allow a detailed distribution of the fast neutron flux in the containers to be obtained. Neutron calculations have been done using 3D discrete ordinate code KATRIN. On the basis of the obtained results, a change of the lead factor due to newtype fuel assemblies was evaluated for all types of VVER-1000 container assemblies.