Calibration, characterisation and Monte Carlo modelling of a fast-UNCL

This paper describes the calibration, characterisation and Monte Carlo modelling of a new IAEA Uranium Neutron Collar (UNCL) for LWR fuel, which can be operated in both passive and active modes. It can employ either 35 3He tubes (in active configuration) or 44 tubes at 10 atm pressure (in its passive configuration) and thus can be operated in fast mode (with Cd liner) as its efficiency is higher than that of the standard UNCL. Furthermore, it has an adjustable internal cavity which allows the measurement of varying sizes of fuel assemblies such as WWER, PWR and BWR. It is intended to be used with Cd liners in active mode (with an AmLi interrogation source in place) by the inspectorate for the determination of the 235U content in fresh fuel assemblies, especially in cases where high concentrations of burnable poisons cause problems with accurate assays. aign of measurements has been carried out at the JRC Performance Laboratories (PERLA) in Ispra (Italy) using various radionuclide neutron sources (252Cf, 241AmLi and PuGa) and our BWR and PWR reference assemblies, in order to calibrate and characterise the counter as well as assess its performance and determine its optimum operational parameters. rmore, the fast-UNCL has been extensively modelled at JRC using the Monte Carlo code, MCNP-PTA, which simulates both the neutron transport and the coincidence electronics. The model has been validated using our measurements which agreed well with calculations. The WWER1000 fuel assembly for which there are no representative reference materials for an adequate calibration of the counter, has also been modelled and the response of the counter to this fuel assembly has been simulated. Subsequently numerical calibrations curves have been obtained for the above fuel assemblies in various modes (fast and thermal). The sensitivity of the counter to fuel rods substitution as well as other important aspects and the parameters of the fast-UNCL performance have been investigated and assessed.