Simulation and comparison of the calorimeters measuring the nuclear heating in the OSIRIS reactor, with the TRIPOLI-4® Monte-Carlo code

Two calorimeter devices are used in the OSIRIS MTR reactor (CEA-Saclay center) for the nuclear heating measurements. The first one is a fixed five-stage calorimeter device. The second one is an innovative mobile probe called “CALMOS”. The design of these devices is different (in particular their geometry), implying modifications on the local neutron and photon fluxes and hence on nuclear heating measured values. The measurements performed by the two calorimeter devices cannot directly be compared; this requires perfect irradiation conditions in the reactor core, especially for the core loading and the control element positions. Simulation is here a good help to perform a fully relevant comparison. In this paper, differences between calorimeter devices in terms of nuclear heating and particle fluxes are evaluated using the TRIPOLI-4 Monte-Carlo code. After a description of the OSIRIS reactor and the design of the two calorimeter devices, the nuclear heating calculation scheme used for simulation will be introduced. Different simulations and results will be detailed and analyzed to determine the calorimeter geometry impact on the measured nuclear heating.