The Activation Detector Activity Calculations Using the Effective Source Method and Measurement

Abstract

In the paper the application of effective source to the solution of activation detector activities in the reactor pressure vessel cavity of the VVER-1000 reactor is presented. The effective source method applies the Boltzmann transport operator to time integrated source data to obtain detector activities. Weighting the source data by time dependent depletion of the detector activity, the result of the calculation is the detector activity. The approach works because of the inherent linearity of radiation transport in non-multiplying time-invariant media. Integrated in this way, the source data are referred to as the ‘effective source’. The effective source method thereby enables the analyst to replace numerous intensive transport calculations with a single transport calculation in which the time dependence and magnitude of the source are correctly represented. Detailed description of the effective source method is presented in previous works. First, there were performed neutron-physical calculations of few real VVER-1000 cycles using MOBY-DICK macrocode. Second, there follows 3-D transport calculation using the deterministic code TORT and the cross section library BUGLE-B7 and obtained results are presented. These calculation results of activation detector activities in the reactor cavity are compared with relevant activation detectors results of the ex-vessel measurement. The comparison between calculation and measurement of activation detectors activity in the reactor cavity is necessary to the calculation quality verifying for further fast neutron fluence onto the reactor pressure vessel credible calculation. The activation detectors positions are evident from Figs 1, 2, 3.