A quantified approach to assessing the effectiveness of nuclear reactor pressure vessel neutron fluence monitoring programs

This paper presents a quantitative approach to characterize the effectiveness of neutron fluence monitoring programs using adjoint neutron transport calculations. The results of adjoint calculations are useful for this purpose because the adjoint solution is the expected contribution from one region...

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Main Authors: Kulesza Joel, Fischer Greg
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: EDP Sciences 2024-01-01
Series:EPJ Web of Conferences
Online Access:https://www.epj-conferences.org/articles/epjconf/pdf/2024/18/epjconf_isrd-17_03004.pdf
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author Kulesza Joel
Fischer Greg
author_facet Kulesza Joel
Fischer Greg
author_sort Kulesza Joel
collection DOAJ
description This paper presents a quantitative approach to characterize the effectiveness of neutron fluence monitoring programs using adjoint neutron transport calculations. The results of adjoint calculations are useful for this purpose because the adjoint solution is the expected contribution from one region of phase space to a response of interest, i.e., the importance of that region of phase space to the response. Thus, by identifying a response of interest (for this work, the fast (E > 1.0 MeV) neutron fluence rate at the peak fluence rate location in the reactor pressure vessel (RPV)), one can identify the fuel regions most important to that response. Once identified, the ability of various surveillance programs to adequately monitor the most-important fuel region(s) can be assessed. The approach described is applied to a three-loop Westinghouse pressurized water reactor to compare the effectiveness of surveillance-capsule neutron dosimetry versus ex-vessel neutron dosimetry to monitor the fuel assemblies that contribute to the peak fast (E > 1.0 MeV) neutron fluence rate in the RPV.
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series EPJ Web of Conferences
spelling doaj-art-bf7930f580104d0bb163c3c280e2215a2024-11-21T11:29:00ZengEDP SciencesEPJ Web of Conferences2100-014X2024-01-013080300410.1051/epjconf/202430803004epjconf_isrd-17_03004A quantified approach to assessing the effectiveness of nuclear reactor pressure vessel neutron fluence monitoring programsKulesza Joel0Fischer Greg1Los Alamos National LaboratoryWestinghouse Electric CompanyThis paper presents a quantitative approach to characterize the effectiveness of neutron fluence monitoring programs using adjoint neutron transport calculations. The results of adjoint calculations are useful for this purpose because the adjoint solution is the expected contribution from one region of phase space to a response of interest, i.e., the importance of that region of phase space to the response. Thus, by identifying a response of interest (for this work, the fast (E > 1.0 MeV) neutron fluence rate at the peak fluence rate location in the reactor pressure vessel (RPV)), one can identify the fuel regions most important to that response. Once identified, the ability of various surveillance programs to adequately monitor the most-important fuel region(s) can be assessed. The approach described is applied to a three-loop Westinghouse pressurized water reactor to compare the effectiveness of surveillance-capsule neutron dosimetry versus ex-vessel neutron dosimetry to monitor the fuel assemblies that contribute to the peak fast (E > 1.0 MeV) neutron fluence rate in the RPV.https://www.epj-conferences.org/articles/epjconf/pdf/2024/18/epjconf_isrd-17_03004.pdf
spellingShingle Kulesza Joel
Fischer Greg
A quantified approach to assessing the effectiveness of nuclear reactor pressure vessel neutron fluence monitoring programs
EPJ Web of Conferences
title A quantified approach to assessing the effectiveness of nuclear reactor pressure vessel neutron fluence monitoring programs
title_full A quantified approach to assessing the effectiveness of nuclear reactor pressure vessel neutron fluence monitoring programs
title_fullStr A quantified approach to assessing the effectiveness of nuclear reactor pressure vessel neutron fluence monitoring programs
title_full_unstemmed A quantified approach to assessing the effectiveness of nuclear reactor pressure vessel neutron fluence monitoring programs
title_short A quantified approach to assessing the effectiveness of nuclear reactor pressure vessel neutron fluence monitoring programs
title_sort quantified approach to assessing the effectiveness of nuclear reactor pressure vessel neutron fluence monitoring programs
url https://www.epj-conferences.org/articles/epjconf/pdf/2024/18/epjconf_isrd-17_03004.pdf
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