The Nuclear Energy Agency is a platform for international cooperation, analysis and joint action with 34 member countries that comprise the most extensive expertise in the development, application, and regulation of nuclear technologies. As such, the NEA is focusing much of its efforts on understanding the need for issues facing the deployment of advanced nuclear energy technologies to...
Early studies of the photoconductive properties of materials eventually led to an understanding of the solid-state and particularly of a new class of materials – the semiconductors. Their sheer number and diversity of properties give rise to a wide range of sensitivities covering almost the entire electromagnetic spectrum − from terahertz to gamma-ray wavelengths. The application of...
The usage of protons or even heavier particles like energetic carbon ions for radiation therapy was proposed 75 years ago by Robert R. Wilson. Since then, pioneering developments and applications have been pursued for several decades at several specialized institutions hosting powerful accelerators for beam production. With the advent of first hospital-based facilities in the 1990s, ion...
Liquid argon (LAr) sampling calorimeters are employed by ATLAS for all electromagnetic
calorimetry in the pseudo-rapidity region |η| < 3.2, and for hadronic and forward
calorimetry in the region from |η| = 1.5 to |η| = 4.9. In the first LHC run a total luminosity of
27 fb$^{−1}$ has been collected at center-of-mass energies of 7-8 TeV. After detector consolidation
during a long shutdown,...
The collaboration on nuclear instrumentation started more than ten years ago between the CEA Experimental Physics, Safety experiment and Instrumentation Section and the Reactor Physics Division of the Jožef Stefan Institute in the frame of bilateral agreement between CEA and the Slovenian Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology started in 2008.
More than ten development projects...
This paper is focused on the radiological mapping of buildings and structures/objects by utilizing unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), including multicopters in particular. These platforms make possible measuring data in close distance to studied objects and with adjustable altitudes, in contrary to terrestrial and other aerial assets. Tasks such as inspection of illegal transportation or storage...
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), in order to enhance the monitoring capability for site contamination and surrounding environment is looking to continuously monitor Tritium (3H) concentration in seawater. We hereby present the latest developments of a system by CEA List, in partnership with TEPCO, to achieve the challenging real-time/in-line monitoring of Tritium (3H) in water.
During...
State-of-the-art arrays of detectors, that require digital processing, may have a sizeable number of digitalized signal links. This is the case in several experimental nuclear physics instruments. Moreover, the sampled signals data rate, defined primary by the signal bandwidth of the individual detector, may not exhaust the capabilities of a single FPGA transceiver input.
This is a critical...
Gamma rays in nuclear reactors, arising either from nuclear reactions or decay processes, significantly contribute to the heating and dose of the reactor components. Zero power research reactors offer the possibility to measure gamma rays in a purely neutronic environment, allowing for validation experiments of computed spectra, dose estimates, reactor noise and prompt to delayed gamma ratios....
Safeguards investigations deal with the inspection of fission materials and their goal requires a reliable experimental verification method to determine the power history of spent fuels. In nuclear power plants it is a key task to continuously monitor the fuel burnup, for this purpose different types of verified deterministic and stochastic codes are applied. For both tasks, it is absolutely...
There are many applications in nuclear environments that benefit from the use of robotics, such as the response to accidents, decommissioning and routine monitoring. Robots have some advantages over humans in the aforementioned contexts, for example: they are often better at repetitive tasks or working in confined spaces. Such situations in nuclear environments can also present a radiological...
he Tile Calorimeter (TileCal) is the central hadronic calorimeter of the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This subdetector is a sampling calorimeter composed of steel plates as absorber material and plastic scintillators as active material. The complete readout of the detector is done using approximately 10,000 photomultipliers (PMTs).
The LHC will undergo a series of...
Three 0.95-mm$^2$ miniature fiber-coupled scintillators have been used to perform cm-wise resolution measurements of the thermal neutron flux within experimental channels of the SUR-100 facility, a zero power thermal reactor operated by the Institute of Nuclear Technology and Energy Systems at the University of Stuttgart. The detection system is developed at the École polytechnique fédérale de...
Key in the international safeguards regime is the use of radiation detectors to track and characterize nuclear material. A relatively new area of interest in detector design is directional detectors: detectors that can report information on radiation source location and distribution along with data on source strength and identity. Neutron scatter cameras are a type of directional neutron...
Introduction
Remote dosimetry (RD) is an essential tool for Decommissioning and Dismantling (D&D) as it enables to predict the impact of decontamination procedures in terms of worker exposition and to set up a cost-effective dismantling scenario associated with a risk analysis and waste management strategy. However, long-range RD in hard-to-access zones (e.g. tanks, reactors, storage...
The BESIII (Beijing Spectrometer III) experiment is hosted at the leptonic collider BEPCII (Beijing Electron Positron Collider II) at IHEP in Beijing and it is successfully running since 2009. Recently, an extension of the data taking for the next 10 years has been approved, so an upgrade program has started. A central element of the upgrade is the replacement of the present inner tracker with...
Recent subcritical VENUS-F experiments showed that fission chambers with a threshold deposit like U-238 can essentially improve the on-line sub-criticality monitoring with the beam interruption method, which is currently supposed to be the main method for the ADS MYRRHA. To suppress the uncertainty caused by fissions in the U-235 impurities, the fraction of U-235 in the U deposit should be...
Reprocessing, nuclear fuel fabrication, or uranium enrichment require large facilities that contain many glove-boxes, tanks and pipes where uranium and/or plutonium can build up. During the cleaning and dismantling of these facilities, the quantity of fissile materials need to be evaluated for nuclear material accounting and control, criticality safety, radiation safety and waste management....
The Dragon (Drone for RAdiation detection of Gammas and Neutrons)
prototype aims at designing and developing an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
equipped with a detection system able to identify radioactive materials, spread
over an area or located in a specific position. The system is focused on the
localization of the unknown emitter and its subsequently identification.
The proposed...
Theoretical prediction for the distribution of the angle between electrons and positrons originating in internal pair creations is a monotonic featureless decrease with the opening angle. Recent studies on excited states of 8Be and 4He nuclei, made in ATOMKI, Hungary, however, revealed deviations from this expectation. If true, such a result may have a fundamental impact: the anomaly can be...
Within the COLIBRI program, reactor noise related to fuel vibrations is investigated in the CROCUS zero power reactor. It consists in experiments on rod lateral displacement (static) and oscillation (dynamic) with different rods’ numbers at various relevant amplitudes and frequencies. Its main motivation is the increased amplitudes in the neutron noise distributions recorded in ex- and in-core...
The increase of concerns in global nuclear security has led to the development of advanced systems for the measurement and identification of radioactive materials. Nowadays different radioisotope identification devices (RIIDs) are commercially available, aiming at deterring and combating the illicit trafficking of radioactive materials and their possible misuse in criminal acts, with...
A usual way of radioactive waste drums characterization combines gamma spectrometry measurements with passive neutron measurements. This method is well adapted in case of alpha spectra, for which both measurements provide different pieces of information and then enable to measure actinides for a large range of waste densities. But some difficulties are encountered when alpha radionuclides...
The interest of the scientific community in studying the three-dimensional propagation of induced perturbations inside nuclear reactor cores and their prediction with deterministic codes triggered the need for experimental full-core mapping systems. In this optic, the Laboratory for Reactor Physics and Systems Behaviour (LRS) at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland,...
Overview of XIA Digital Pulse Processors for Nuclear and X-ray Spectroscopy.
TBA
TBA
Silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductor is an ideal material for solid-state nuclear radiation detectors to be used in high-temperature, high-radiation environments. Such harsh environments are typically encountered in nuclear reactor measurement locations as well as high-level radioactive waste and/or “hot” dismantling-decommissioning operations. In the present fleet of commercial nuclear...
Neutron beam monitors are key instrumental components in neutron scattering science; they are used to measure the instantaneous neutron flux upstream the sample in order to normalize the experimental data. The measurement consists in converting a small fraction of the neutron beam into individual pulses or into a current signal. Among the different monitoring systems used, Uranium fission...
Thermal neutron detection is typically carried out by a double-step process involving neutron conversion reactions leading to secondary charged particles and subsequent detection of the reaction products by means of solid state detectors, scintillators or gas chambers. A proper efficiency thermal neutron conversion material should exhibit a high neutron-capture cross section and optimal...
Faruk Logoglu and Marek Flaska
Ken and Mary Alice Lindquist Department of Nuclear Engineering
The Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, USA
In this project, we are investigating different micro- and nano-structure approaches to neutron detection based on inorganic scintillators. Specifically, we have been assessing various micro- and nano-geometries to maximize the fast-neutron...
For the last three decades, the number of active irradiation facilities is continuously increasing, for various needs, from fundamental research to radiation testing or medical applications. To develop and guarantee the facility’s technologies, requests for its control and reliability are becoming more and more precise and multiply the number of beam diagnostics from the source to the final...
We report on response of newly designed 4H-SiC Schottky barrier diode (SBD) detector to alpha, beta and gamma particles. In order to optimize SiC SBD detector’s thermal neutron efficiency, it’s of particular importance to understand its behavior in various radiation fields. The optimal size of the SBD is limited by degradation of electronic properties, and consequently their charge particle...
The Tube Support Plate blockage, also named clogging, is a complex phenomenon that can occur in the steam generator of Pressurized Water Reactors. This deposit mainly composed of iron oxides, may induce several consequences (thermohydraulic flows changes inside SGs, vibrational or oscillatory risks, mechanical resistance of SG tubes and internals, impact on water inventory …). . Since 2014,...
Caliste is a miniature CdTe-based pixelated imaging spectrometer. The detector is a single plane 1 cm² crystal readout by 8 low noise full custom ASICs enabling high energy resolution. Thanks to its position sensitivity and its spectrometric performances, this detector is able to perform Compton imaging in order to localize radioactive point sources, emitting high-energy gamma-ray photons, and...
High-resolution X-ray imaging techniques, usually known as micro-radiography and micro-CT, have become highly required and frequently used tools for biology, biomedical and pre-clinical research. State-of-the-art micro-CT scanners are capable of achieving spatial resolution of few micrometers or even less thanks to the constant development of compact micro-focus X-ray sources with simultaneous...
Practical exercises or hands-on experiments in Reactor Physics at a research reactor are an essential part of education and training in Nuclear Engineering. They are mostly performed at low power research reactors and/or critical and subcritical assemblies. Institutions that do not have their own research experimental facilities often visit other facilities to perform hands-on experiments. In...
In this paper, it is shown how numerical simulations can help designing an ultrasonic instrument operating in harsh conditions. To prevent fuel handling errors in sodium cooled fast reactors, the identification of fuel subassemblies using ultrasound is being investigated. It is based on the interpretation of a code (aligned notches) engraved on the subassembly head using an emitting/receiving...
Many established nuclear power producing countries are currently decommissioning first and increasingly second-generation power producing plants and fuel processing facilities. This has led to a growing inventory of different containers and packages containing radioactive waste and other nuclear materials, as well as storage of spent fuel. Here we describe establishment of in-situ yet remote...
The Wearable PET (WPET) project was successfully supported by EU-ATTRACT (https://attract-eu.com). Its objective is to demonstrate the feasibility of a light PET systems for cancer preventive screening which can be hosted by wearable vest.
Positron Emission Tomography or PET is a very precise imaging modality commonly used in hospital oncology units to test patients with cancer to establish...
The European Nuclear Experimental Educational Platform – ENEEP is currently being established by five European educational / research organizations in the framework of a Horizon 2020 project, initiated in 2019. The ENEEP partner institutions are the Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI) in Ljubljana, Slovenia, the Slovak Technical University (STU) in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, the Czech Technical...
The Laboratory for Reactor Physics and Systems Behavior (LRS) of the école Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) has in recent years been involved with the European CORTEX project, which aims to characterize reactor perturbations such as local bubbling, mechanical vibrations, etc. by neutron flux measurements. The goal of the LRS is the preparation and execution of experiments and...
Nondestructive characterization of large concrete radioactive waste packages is a major challenge. The fissile mass inside has to be estimated very precisely in order to transport and store the wastes in the safest way. Ultimately, knowing the alpha activity of the waste packages could enable to lower their activity category and thus to significantly reduce their final repository cost, e.g. in...
Treatment verification is expected to improve targeting precision in particle therapy. A promising technique to achieve this goal is the detection of prompt gamma rays emitted along the particle tracks inside the patient. The range of the particle beam can be inferred by determining the time distribution of these gamma-rays relative to the radio frequency of the accelerator, a method commonly...
Active learning engages students in activities that could enhances their ability to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the material being learned. The students participate in doing things instead of just listening. Evidence-based studies have shown that active learning increases student performance in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses. The goal of this project is...
The MADERE platform (Measurement Applied to DosimEtry for REactors) is a metrology facility whose main purpose is to determine the specific activity of solid-state dosimeters irradiated in nuclear reactors, using γ- and X-ray spectrometry. The platform is accredited by the French accreditation Committee (COFRAC) for specific activity measurement of γ- and X-ray emitters.
Analysis methods used...
In the framework of the MICADO EU project, aimed at the full digitization of the low and intermediate level radioactive waste management, we have produced and characterized a full set of radiation counters suitable for monitoring gamma rays and neutrons. In particular the goal of the Work Package 7 is to set up a granular radwaste monitoring system to be used during the final demonstration....
Particle therapy constitutes a promising and rapidly developing method in modern cancer treatment. In order to exploit its full potential, however, it requires detailed dose verification.
Although the applicability of in-beam positron emission tomography and prompt gamma rays has already been demonstrated in patients, range verification is not yet part of the clinical routine in particle...
Technological platforms dedicated for digital instrumentation and control of nuclear reactors are quite complex in terms of functionalities and devices. Hence, the design of these platforms requires high-level abstraction layers able to reduce the complexity, to rise the automation and to check the consistency between different development stages. The development of such systems is a...
In this study, we present an exhaustive model to simulate the detection of beta particles with scintillating fibres, based on a chronological follow-up of the information carrier. We manufactured a detector composed of a bundle of 100 BCF-10 scintillating fibres, which will be used to compare simulation and experimental results. A Monte-Carlo simulation model of the detector was generated...
The Joint European Torus (JET) is the largest operating fusion tokamak in the world. This allows performance of unique experiments that cannot be performed anywhere else. One such experiment is long term irradiation of different fusion relevant materials with neutrons produced in deuterium-deuterium (DD) and deuterium-tritium (DT) plasmas. During the last DD plasma campaign at JET in 2019 and...
Operation experience in many Material Testing Reactors, where beryllium moderator or reflector is used, has shown that accumulation of neutron absorbers, so-called poisons, has a non-negligible impact on both core performance and safety aspects due to n-Be interactions, and needs to be addressed properly in calculations. As a result, depletion of beryllium, called also beryllium poisoning, was...
During a severe accident in sodium-cooled fast reactors, jets of molten nuclear fuel may penetrate into the coolant resulting in fuel-coolant interactions (FCI). Experimental programs are being conducted to study this phenomenology and to support the models development for evaluating consequences of severe accident. Due to the optical opacity of the test section walls and sodium coolant,...
The TEPLATOR is a new type of nuclear reactor which the main purpose is producing heat for district heating. It is designed as a special thermal reactor with 55 fuel channels for fuel assemblies, which is moderated and cooled by heavy water and operated around atmospheric pressure. The TEPLATOR DEMO is designed for using irradiated fuel from PWR or BWR reactors. Using heavy water as the...
Most of today’s commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) electronics are not specified to meet the demanding requirements of advanced nuclear applications requiring MGy-level TID tolerance. Examples are maintenance and diagnostics tasks in future burning plasma fusion reactors, for example the ITER. Applications such as interventions during nuclear accidents, dismantling of old nuclear power plants and...
Constant improvements of the computational power and methods as well as demands of precise and reliable measurements for reactor operation and safety require a continuous upgrade of the instrumentation. In particular, nuclear sensors used in nuclear fission reactors (research or power reactors) or in fusion facilities are operated under intense mixed neutron and gamma-ray fields, and need to...
The High Temperature Irradiation Resistant thermocouple (HTIR-TC) is the only temperature probe proven to withstand both the high temperatures (e.g. >1290 °C) and high radiation (e.g. up to a fluence of 1E21 n/cm2) of nuclear reactor fuel design tests and/or over-temperature accident conditions. The HTIR-TC heat treatment, calibration, and in-pile performance during the Advanced Gas Reactor...
This paper presents the design and performance of turnkey and compact HPGe solutions, developed
by Mirion Technologies (CANBERRA) for radionuclide identification outdoor and under harsh
environmental conditions. Surveys can be undertaken under various weather conditions, in
contaminated areas, underground or immersed under water (sea, rivers, pools), with fast on-site
deployment and...
The fuel ion ratio, $n_T/n_D$, is an important plasma parameter in magnetically confined fusion, especially for future fusion devices (ITER, DEMO), which plan to achieve fusion through deuterium-tritium (DT) plasmas. In order to maximize the fusion power output, it is necessary to ensure equal number densities of tritium and deuterium (i.e. $n_T/n_D = 1$). Neutron spectroscopy offers the...
In the nuclear reactor, it is crucial to measure key parameters such as neutron and photon fluxes or nuclear heating rate for a better understanding of the behavior of nuclear fuels or materials subjected to nuclear radiation. The coupling of different on-line measurement sensors is at the heart of these scientific objectives. The LIMMEX laboratory (Laboratory of Instrumentation and...
The study of accidental situations is one of the major asset for nuclear industry in guaranteeing the so-called regulated safety of its electricity production facilities. The Loss Of Coolant Accident (LOCA) is tested in experimental reactor and hot cell to verify the mechanical properties of the fuel rod, the safety criteria and the associated calculation codes. The VINON-LOCA experimental...
Measurement equipment for the detection and identification of radioactive and nuclear (RN) material has a wide application area. The main application aspects are monitoring, search, and identification. Measuring systems are divided into different device classes. There are both portable systems like the handheld systems radiation isotope identifiers (RIID) or personal radiation detectors (PRD)...
The neutron flux monitor (NFM) is a standard diagnostic for fusion neutron yield measurement on experimental advanced superconduct tokamak (EAST), and the neutron yield is a most important parameter to research of plasma auxiliary heating. After the upgrade of EAST, higher requirements for neutron flux measurements are put forward. Based on fast ADC (14bit, 500MSPS) and a high-performance...
Education, training and isotopes production are the most important uses of the Moroccan 2 MW TRIGA Mark II reactor situated at the National Center for Energy Sciences and Nuclear Techniques (CNESTEN, Morocco). To develop new R&D projects in research reactors, the particular and advanced knowledge of neutron and photon flux distribution, within and around the reactor core, is crucial.
In...
MERARG experimental loop hosted at the LECA-STAR Hot Laboratory (CEA Cadarache) allows characterizing nuclear fuels with respect to the behavior of fission gases during thermal transients representative of accident conditions such as for example loss of coolant accident (LOCA). MERARG loop consists of three main parts: 1- an induction furnace 2- a gamma spectrometry detector 3- a glove box...
Detection of gamma ray sources is a challenging task in many applications, where monitoring and mapping of radiological and nuclear materials is required. Obtaining directional information is required for nuclear homeland security (HLS) and safety, mapping for post-accident decontamination of nuclear incident or radiological event, etc. Many of directional radiation detectors are based on...
Self-powered neutron detectors (SPND) have been a common diagnostic tool for intra-core neutron flux mapping in thermal nuclear reactors for more than 45 years. They are attractive flux monitors as they are compact, simple, and produce a signal proportional to local neutron flux without the need for an external source of power. Signal in these detectors is driven by electrons generated from...
The CABRI experimental pulse reactor, located at the Cadarache nuclear research center, southern France, is devoted to the study of Reactivity Initiated Accidents (RIA) for the purpose of the CABRI International Program (CIP), managed by IRSN in the framework of an OECD/NEA agreement. The hodoscope equipment installed in the CABRI reactor is a unique online fuel motion monitoring system,...
The estimation of uranium content in ore samples by high resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy requires long measurement times and expensive high-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors. In this work, we present the possibility to measure uranium by low-resolution gamma-ray spectrometry with an easy-to-operate and cost effective NaI(Tl) detector. This method is based on the analysis of two energy bands...
This paper shows the results from the experiment at Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna and was carried out in 2014. The sample, using a special device, were placed in the accelerator chamber at a radius corresponding to the energy of protons 200 MeV at the current of 0.3 A. The position of the 200 MeV beam was determined by placing an aluminium foil inside the accelerator and...
Passive detection of special nuclear material is challenging because of its inherently low rate of spontaneous emission of penetrating radiation, the relative ease of shielding, and the fluctuating and frequently overwhelming background. Active interrogation, the use of external radiation to increase the emission rate of characteristic radiation from special nuclear material, has long been...
To meet new TDAQ buffering requirements and withstand the high expected radiation doses
at the high-luminosity LHC, the ATLAS Liquid Argon Calorimeter readout electronics will be
upgraded. The triangular calorimeter signals are amplified and shaped by analogue
electronics over a dynamic range of 16 bits, with low noise and excellent linearity.
Developments of low-power preamplifiers and...
The Centro de Micro-Análisis de Materiales (CMAM) is one of the two research centres with an ion accelerator in Spain. It belongs to the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) and the building that hosts the laboratory is at the university campus.
The equipment of the facility consists on an electrostatic ion accelerator with a maximum terminal voltage of 5 MV and six beam-lines dedicated to...
In the framework of plutonium characterization in radioactive waste drums by passive neutron coincidence counting, the Nuclear Measurement Laboratory of CEA Cadarache is studying plastic scintillators as a cheaper alternative to $^3$He gas proportional counters. Plastic scintillators offer a three order of magnitude faster time response than $^3$He detectors, larger volumes and a similar...
Nuclear legacy waste storage facilities, such as ponds, tanks and silos, at nuclear waste management facilities or waste disposal sites, often contain radioactive waste under water. Some of these structures in the UK were not lined and, over time, cracks and slits have occurred providing paths for egress of radioactivity to the environment. Consequently, a mixture of radionuclides and water,...
Improvement in neutronics codes jointly with the advent of high performance computing systems made a deeper knowledge on nuclear data more sensitive. The latter is used both for solving the neutron transport equation together with nuclear instrumentation validation and operation. Hence, it becomes relevant to improve the knowledge of the fission cross section of fertile secondary actinides as...
The neutron time-of-flight facility nELBE at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf features the first photo-neutron source at a superconducting electron accelerator. The electrons are focused onto a liquid lead target to produce bremsstrahlung which in turn produces neutrons via photo-nuclear reactions. The emitted neutron spectrum ranges from about 10 keV up to 15 MeV with a source strength of...
Precise measurement of neutron flux is crucial for reactor operation, especially during fast reactor transients. Measurement is valuable not only in reactor operation itself, but also for the prediction of reactor behavior via calculation or experiments. Especially fast transients with significant change in neutron flux are interesting and in order to analyse them, an advanced detection system...
Since World War II there has been a significant development of methods and approaches used in the calculation of radiation shielding. This development was directly supported by the needs of industry (military technology, nuclear power plants, food processing, medical applications, accelerators, etc.). Over time, modelling and simulation of relevant effects shifted from an analytical modelling...
This paper presents a solution for embedding an isotope identification algorithm on portable gamma spectrometry systems based on template approach. There exist many algorithms able to identify isotopes in a spectrum. These algorithms can be classified into two large families. The first family is based on peak search or Region Of Interest (ROI) in the spectrum, the second on a global template...
This paper describes the use of a Hamamatsu H13700 1616 multi-anode photomultiplier tube (MAPMT) to quantify regional variations in the confidence of neutron/gamma discrimination across the volume of a continuous, organic scintillator. The MAPMT outputs are multiplexed to a single analogue input channel on a mixed-field analyser performing pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) by pulse-gradient...
Thermo-luminescent detectors are currently used to measure gamma doses in the medical and environmental surveillance fields. During the past few years, the CEA Reactor Studies Division tested and validated the use of these detectors for gamma flux characterization and nuclear heating measurements in mixed neutron/gamma fields of low power reactors. Doses were comprised between a few mGy and a...
Non-destructive assays (NDA), carried out to account for nuclear materials, generally include the measurement of the initial enrichment of fresh fuel, the burnup, the colling time and the initial enrichment of the irradiated nuclear fuel, and distribution of nuclear materials and fission products over the volume of fuel assemblies in order to identify the fact of extraction of nuclear...
Gamma-ray spectrometry is a reference technique for measurements carried out during the decommissioning process. Compton continuum is a major contribution to the signal-to-noise ratio when considering low-energy peaks measurement. Lead shielding is oftenly used to reduce background contribution but its weight is a major drawback.
This work investigates a compact Compton Suppression System...
Neutron measurement technologies are being studied due to the demand in nuclear fusion, accelerator facilities, nuclear non-proliferation treaty, etc. Since neutron fields are typically present with gamma-ray, the separation technique is necessary such as pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) for neutron detection. Organic scintillators, such as plastic scintillators, are capable PSD using...
The natural niobium metal is well suited for atomic reactors due to its high temperature resistant, corrosion resistant, low long term induced radioactivity properties. Niobium alloys such as NbTi and Nb3Sn are used as super magnets in fusion reactors due to its super conducting properties. The 93Nb(n,2n)92mNb reaction is also used as monitor reaction. Therefore accurate data of...
There is a growing interest in fiber optic measurements for applications in radiation environments. They can be used to monitor environmental parameters such as temperature, size, pressure, chemical composition, irradiation doses and dose rates.... Often, the developed systems imply no propagation of the light beam outside the fiber, but for some applications, fiber optic is combined with an...
In nuclear criticality safety analysis, burnup credit is an approach that credits the reduction in reactivity due to fuel burnup. The calculation using burnup credit method consists of two main steps: a burnup calculation, which estimates nuclide concentrations in the spent fuel, and criticality calculation, which uses the nuclide concentrations determined in the first step. However,...
The ease of formation of defect fluorite structure of Gd2Zr2O7 pyrochlore oxide addresses the remarkable radiation tolerance for the nuclear waste immobilization. The rare earth, particularly Gd, zirconates are effective neutron absorbers, thus advantageous for the disposal of plutonium. Several studies have been conducted on the Gd2Zr2O7 ceramic, the exact nature of grain size dependent...
The response of a position-sensitive planar High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector has been studied using pulse shape comparison and positron annihilation method. Such detectors will be useful in the DESPEC (DEcay SPECtroscopy) experiments at the FAIR facility to study the exotic nuclei. The characterization of the detector has been performed using a novel scanning system available at GSI...
The main objective of the HERMES-Technologic and Scientific Pathfinder (HERMES-TP/SP) mission is to develop a cheap and scalable network of 3U nanosatellites to promptly detect, localize and probe high-energy astronomical transients such as Gamma-Ray Bursts and electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational waves events.
HERMES will be able to detect GRBs prompt emission over a broad energy...
The availability of neutron fields with a high neutron flux, suitable for irradiation testing of nuclear instrumentation detectors (such as fission and ionization chambers and self-powered neutron detectors) relevant for applications in nuclear facilities such as material testing reactors (MTRs), nuclear power reactors and future fusion reactors is becoming increasingly limited. Over the last...
Pulse Shape Discrimination is a technique used extensively for the detection and analysis of neutron emissions in mixed fields of ionising radiation. Pulse Shape Discrimination utilises a single detector and digital processing setup that can discriminate between incident γ-rays and neutrons based on the decay rates in the scintillation light caused by the different radiations interacting in...
This research examines the potential deployment of a cadmium telluride strontium-90 detector in groundwater boreholes at nuclear decommissioning sites. This is represents a novel approach to monitoring strontium-90 contamination at decommissioning sites such as Sellafield, and has the potential to reduce lifetime monitoring costs while providing information on a significantly reduced...
The application of perovskite materials for radiation sensors is a rapidly emerging field, with strong cross-over from perovskite research on photovoltaic devices. Perovskite materials offer new technologies for digital X-ray and gamma ray sensors with potential application areas in medical imaging systems, industrial X-ray inspection, and airport security systems. Perovskite materials,...
The nuclear heating named also “absorbed dose rate” is a quantity that it is essential to predict numerically in order to optimize the design of different elements of a nuclear research reactor and of its experimental irradiation devices for instance for safety, thermal and mechanical aspects and then to measure it accurately in order to analyze results associated to in-pile experiments. Heat...
Polymer optical fibers (POFs) have been attracting substantial attention from research and industry thanks to particular mechanical properties, simple handling, biomedical compatibility and safety. Among POFs, cyclic transparent amorphous fluoropolymer (CYTOP) fiber demonstrates radically low attenuation in the telecom transparency windows of 850 and 1310 nm, thus becoming an efficient...
Distributed networks of hybrid semiconductor pixelated detectors have proven their usefulness in characterization of mixed radiation fields, e.g. the ATLAS TPX network, which has provided data on particle flux within the ATLAS cavity at LHC over a span of several years by now; or the similar case at the MoEDAL experiment in the LHCb facility. In the framework of the Horizon 2020 funded MICADO...
A new system design and a method to estimate and classify small waste containers is presented. A homogenous radioactive waste, placed in these small containers. Each container activity needs to be assessed in order to classify its activity level, e.g. Very Low-Level Waste etc. We propose a measurement system in the shape of a rectangular box made of several plates of scintillator detectors....
A new X-ray detection system composed of an arrays of multichannel Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs) is presented. This custom-designed multilayer can be adapted to the required geometry and caracteristics. The presented layout is composed by a 8 monolithic array of SDD each with 8 cells with a total area of 570 mm$^2$, ultra-low noise front-end electronics, integrated dedicated acquisition...
A new material testing reactor Jules Horowitz Reactor (JHR) is under construction at CEA Cadarache. The materials to be irradiated will be placed into experimental devices around the reactor. Process and measurements of experimental devices will be carried out by command control. Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) dedicated on each experimental device will realize this function. Some...
Since the Halden loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) test series IFA-650, a major safety interest has raised for Fuel Fragmentation, Relocation and Dispersal (FFRD) during a LOCA sequence. Besides the characteristics and the behavior of the fuel ejected from the rod after the clad burst, the occurrence of the ballooning, of the fuel fragmentation and of the possible fuel relocation within the rod...
Detection of neutrons is becoming of the utmost importance, especially in the studies of radioactive waste and in homeland security applications. The crisis of $\mathrm{He}^3$ availability has required the development of innovative techniques. One solution is to develop light gas detectors for neutron counting to be used as portals for ports and airports. The neutron is converted on the...
A key aspect involving both operational activities as well as radioprotection in NPP (Nuclear Power Plant) is the management of nuclear waste. Providing efficient and reliable real-time radionuclide concentrations contributes invaluable information while processing nuclear waste as it can in turn reduce costs with packaging, transportation, and disposition for NPPs.
Typical NPPs procedures...
This paper presents a comparative study of neutron-gamma discrimination performance with stilbene crystal, 6Li-doped plastic and BC501A liquid scintillators coupled to photomultiplier tubes. Neutron-gamma discrimination itself relies upon supervised and unsupervised machine learning algorithms. The method, which is based on blind non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) as an unsupervised...
The present article summarizes the development and testing of a reactivity modulation device developed by the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). It was installed in the CROCUS reactor of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). Experimental tests were performed in the framework of a collaboration between CEA and EPFL.
The so-called PISTIL reactivity modulator...
The neutron detection using organic scintillators is a perspective technique for online neutron detection independent of the use of 3He detectors. This is an important issue due to the increas-ing need of neutron detection in homeland security, nuclear energy and also in nuclear nonpro-liferation applications. One of the important parameters in organic scintillation spectroscopy is the energy...
A gamma camera, allowing the localization of radioactive sources, is a very useful device in various fields of the nuclear industry: monitoring, D&D or waste management are some examples. However, the information of the source position is not enough and should come with the sources identification and dosimetry information, which are provided by additional devices, such as radiameters. In this...
Liquid organic scintillators are important devices for measurements of neutron radiation. This work aims to develop and optimize the composition of liquid organic scintillators so it can be used for fast neutron spectrometry. As the neutron radiation is usually accompanied with γ ray radiation, this work is focused on γ/n discrimination. In our experiments, the 252 Cf is used as a radiation...
The (n, γ) reaction cross-sections of Indium (In) isotopes are of prime interest for the study of neutron-induced nuclear data. The (n, γ) reaction cross-sections are crucial for upcoming nuclear technologies, like Accelerator Driven Subcritical Systems (ADSs) and Advance Heavy Water Reactors (AHWR) [1, 2]. Indium has extensively been used for the flux measurements in the neutron-induced...
In the frame of the MICADO H2020 project, a passive and active neutron measurement system is being developed to estimate the nuclear material mass inside legacy waste drums of low and intermediate radioactivity levels. Monte-Carlo simulations have been performed to design a modular and transportable neutron system, with the main objective to reach a good tradeoff between the performances in...
Liquid organic scintillators are important devices for measurements of neutron radiation. This work aims to develop and optimize the composition of liquid organic scintillators so it can be used for fast neutron spectrometry. As the neutron radiation is usually accompanied with γ ray radiation, it is important to have quality γ/n discrimination. The new cocktail for house made liquid organic...
Gamma-ray spectrometry using collimated detectors is a well-established method to acquire information about the state of irradiated nuclear fuel. However, the feasibility of examining a particular nuclide of interest is subject to constraints; the peak must be statistically determinable with the desired precision, which is governed by the peak count rate, and the continuum background in the...
The knowledge of the thermal conductivity of nuclear fuel and its evolution as a function of temperature and burn up is a major challenge in the context of the evaluation and understanding of irradiated fuel performances in current reactors. It is also the case for the development and qualification of fuel for future reactors. Indeed, numerical simulations of the fuel behaviour under various...
Currently first clinical CTs equipped with photon-counting technology are becoming available. Whereas such scanners will remain to be very rare in the time to come, laboratory based photon-counting µCT setups have become much more common in previous years. For this reason, method development in photon-counting CT is likely to be driven by translational research in the coming years. With...
Lead halide perovskites (LHPs) have many characteristics that are of interest when considering their use as scintillators: due to the high atomic number of lead, LHPs have high X-ray stopping power; their luminescence wavelength may be tuned throughout the visible region through adjustments to their composition (this wavelength could be chosen to fit the application of the detector, e.g. to...
We have characterized a Cerium doped Lanthanum Bromide (LaBr3(Ce) ) crystal coupled with the position-sensitive photo-multiplier system for the γ-ray imaging application. One can use this detector set-up for the scanning of high purity germanium detectors for pulse shape analysis in γ-ray spectroscopy experiments and the image formation of an object by Compton back-scattering [1, 2]. The...
The restoration and preservation processes of the old painted arts are often combined with more or less extensive inspection of work. Any manipulation with the investigated object needs to be non-invasive and non-destructive as the historical price of the artefacts can be incalculable. Information about the sample surface can be obtained by visual methods varying from digital photography to...
Portable gamma-ray imaging is an emerging field in nuclear instrumentation, with applications in radiation safety, waste management, decommissioning, environmental and security applications. It provides users with a single portable instrument to detect, identify and localize radioactive material. Most imagers are based on position sensitive spectrometric detectors, including scintillators...
Space experiment BION-M2 focuses on research of effects of ionizing radiation to biological samples such as geckos and mice. The return module of BION-M2 carries the life support systems for all living organisms. The launch of the satellite is planned on the year of 2023, the average altitude will be 800 km.
The newly developed hybrid silicon/scintillator detector will support this experiment...
To keep the dependability of Sodium Cooled Fast Reactor, the ‘‘clean sodium concept’’ is demanded, which means that the sodium is free from contamination. The release of fission products is searched for by a contamination measuring system. We need to have a comprehensive description of cladding failures and the detection of contamination, including the failure occurrence on the fuel pin, the...
The CORSAIR (Cloud Oriented Radiation Sensor for Advanced Investigation of Rocks) project was born to meet the EU guidelines 2013/59/EURATOM and now the Italian legislation decree D.Lgs.101/2020 on safety standards for protection against ionizing radiations.
With this project there is a specific focus on the detection of the NORM (Naturally Occurrence Radioactive Materials) contribute coming...
Since 2004, the “Filière Instrumentation” unit of the Physics Department of the Faculty of Sciences at Aix-Marseille University has been collaborating with the CEA to develop different education activities on the topic of nuclear instrumentation. These activities involve also several partners such as EDF, IEEE NPSS, international nuclear centers (SCK-CEN in Belgium, NCBJ in Poland, CNESTEN in...
We were developing a cheap concept of a fast commercial silicon pixel detectors combined with a state of the art readout electronics based on ultrafast sampling and waveform digitizers of the signal giving simultaneously its time and amplitude.
This concept was used originally in High Energy Physiscs and we transpose it
with two applications from cosmic ray physics and particle therapy...
Fission chamber technology has been identified as the most suitable method for neutron detection to be used in the vessel of a sodium fast reactor and may possibly also be used for neutron diagnostics in fusion power (ITER, DEMO). This type of detector, namely High Temperature Fission Chamber (HTFC), must be able to operate under high irradiation of up to 10^10 n/cm².s, must have high...
This presentation stems from a thesis project in progress, leading to a unique multi detectors Bonner sphere. Neutron spectrometers like Bonner spheres have been studied and developed for more than 60 years for astrophysics and radiological protection applications. In particular, in radiological protection, it is a crucial challenge to determine the initial energy of the incident neutrons with...
The LUCID experiment involved groups of students in a school in Kent, UK, working with a huge number of colleagues to put Medipix technology in open space on TechDemoSat 1. Students worked on this outside their formal studies over a period of ten years and benefitted from real engagement with research. LUCID [1, 2] studied the radiation environment in Low Earth Orbit for three years,...
The recent association of gamma-ray bursts with neutron star mergers highlighted the need for sensitive gamma-ray detectors with high localization accuracy. Identification of the host galaxy of the gravitational wave event GW170817 and the gamma-ray burst GRB170817A was only achieved 11 hours after initial detection, due to difficulties in surveying the uncertainty region of the gravitational...
Nowadays, the optical fiber sensors (OFSs) have attracted the interest not only of researchers but also of industries, for their applications in harsh environments characterized by high temperatures and/or radiations. The Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) based technology is one of the most widely studied under radiation [1]. Even today it presents qualities unbeatable by other OFSs, such as its high...
In this paper, an approach based on a semiconductor radiation detector exhibiting a matrix organization coupled with the use of rings oscillators for current detection is developed. This approach is based on the reading of the information related to indirect output parameters of the detection chain instead of directly measuring the current from the sensor. This solution is interesting because...
MX-10 particle camera [1] as a modified variant of the read-out interface for Timepix pixel detector is dedicated for educational purposes to demonstrate real-time detection and visualization of basic kinds of radiation as alpha, beta, gamma rays and cosmic muons. However, its use is not strictly limited to perform the fundamental exercises that are formulated in the complementary manual book...
In 2012 the US Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) initiated the Advanced Sensors and Instrumentation (ASI) program as part of the Nuclear Energy Enabling Technologies (NEET) research as part of crosscutting RD&D activities to advance the state of nuclear technology, improve its competitiveness, and promote continued contribution to meet the nation’s energy and environmental...
Radon is the most important radioactive noble gas existing in nature. It belongs to the radioactive decay chains of 238U and 232Th. As an inert gas, radon, and in particular the long-lived isotope, 222Rn (T1/2 = 3.82 day), has high mobility and can easily escape from materials containing traces of Uranium. For low energy and low counting rate experiment in particle and astroparticle physics...
EASY, a plug-and-play educational system, is portable, compact and a complete system for microstrip sensor characterization. Ideal for making basic or complex experiments. It is based on the Alibava System, largely used within the CERN community to test micro-strip detectors for particle experiments. The system can be configured to work with laser light or radioactive sources.
The aim of...
Depending on the used library, nuclear data regarding the emission of delayed neutrons present significant discrepancies. Therefore, in the framework of the NEEDS/NACRE collaboration, the ALDEN (Average Lifetime of DElayed Neutrons) program was launched in 2018 by CEA (DES and DRF), CNRS (LPSC, CENBG, LPC Caen), ENSICAEN and Caen University. This program aims at measuring the...
JHR irradiation test devices must undergo a periodic inspection every 40 months (French Regulation rule). The first step of inspection proposal for application of non-destructive techniques (NDT) for these devices is presented, through examining the possible methods and locations that could be utilized in the reactor.
The selection of NDT methods depends mainly on the device geometry,...
Decommissioning and dismantling (D&D) operations conducted in former nuclear facilities generate a large amount of nuclear waste packages. Characterization of the latter is an important step in the management process. Active photon interrogation, based on the photofission reaction, is a well-adapted method to characterize nuclear waste packages containing concrete matrices. Indeed, with such...
The non-destructive assay based on radiation detection techniques is cost-effective measure to characterize radioactive waste and serves to verify the conformity with safety requirements for waste packages. Gamma scanning is a standard widespread measurement technique for the non-destructive assay of radioactive waste drums to determine the nuclide-specific activity content of the waste...
Segmented HPGe (High Purity Germanium) detectors are commonplace in nuclear structure studies, where position and amount of energy deposited by the photon’s interactions inside the detector are fully reconstructed at every event using the pulse shape analysis methods. Recently a similar segmented HPGe detector concept in combination with a multi-slit collimator was proposed for gamma emission...
Among numerous research projects devoted to the improvement of the nuclear fuel behavior knowledge, the development of advanced instrumentation for in-pile experiments in Material Testing Reactor is of great interest. In the frame of JHR reactor, new requirements have arisen creating new constraints. This research is carried out within the framework of a long-standing partnership between CEA,...
Within the CHANCE project several non-destructive technique are being considered for the assay of waste bearing drums. Such techniques include calorimetry, gamma-ray spectroscopy and neutron coincidence counting. The aim is to reduce uncertainties on the inventory of radionuclides by combining the signatures from different techniques in the data analysis.
In this framework, neutron...
In various situations such as legacy wastes or optimising waste storage and decontamination costs, it would be very helpful to know the 3D distribution of various contaminants inside an object prior to decision making. Compton camera with their wide filed of view could allow such tomography in a cost effective way, but so far their spatial resolution and sensitivity was too limited for...
During the last reactor cycle in 2020, a combined team from the Institut Laue-Langevin and Berkeley National Lab has commissioned and tested a self-learning algorithm capable to perform autonomous measurements. For the first time the computer took control of the three axis neutron spectrometer ThALES, without any human intervention. The algorithm was able to explore the reciprocal space and...
The high neutron and gamma fluxes as well as strong displacements per atom characterize conditions of materials testing reactors (MTRs). These research reactors constitute major support research facilities and allow experimental and real-condition studies of the behavior of fuels and inert materials (vessel, reflector, cladding, etc.) in an extreme radiation environment. These studies are...
The evaluation of fissile mass inside radioactive waste drums is essential for radioactive waste management, nuclear safety and criticality issues. However, passive and active neutron measurements can be strongly impacted by the uncertainty on the neutron source position within the drum and by matrix effects.
Therefore, an imaging panel proposed by Proportional Technologies Inc and composed...
In the nuclear field, the development of instruments for measuring radioactivity and more particularly imaging systems for locating radioactive material is an important issue. This need for localization can be found in many areas of the nuclear industry (decommissioning, waste management and radiation protection) as well as for Homeland Security applications (non-proliferation of nuclear...
The Active Target ATS (Active Target for SPES) is a new time-projection chamber designed for reaction and decay studies with nuclei far from stability. This kind of instrument, initially developed for high-energy physics, has found profitable applications in medium- and low-energy nuclear physics as shown by a successful series of experiments.
The physics cases for the new-generation active...
This paper deals with the assessment of irradiation conditions in various experimental positions in the Jules Horowitz Reactor core and reflector. For this purpose, the CARMEN device is foreseen to measure neutron and gamma flux and nuclear heating in the experimental channels of the JHR [1]. CARMEN is an axially mobile measuring system composed of two fission chambers sensitive to both fast...
Due to their nature plastic scintillators are widely used in industrial applications as well as in research and scientific fields. In the field of nuclear physics, plastic scintillators show favourable properties such as possibility to be prepared in large volumes and different sizes and shapes; they are cheap, efficient and can be easily modified. Standard plastic scintillators are available...
In 2019 the MICADO (Measurement and Instrumentation for Cleaning And Decommissioning Operations) project started under the H2020 Euratom call aiming to become a reference in the nuclear waste characterisation field. It can be possible by the system under development and to the partners involved representing some of the most important actors of the sector. They are covering the roles of...
The construction of new portable spectrometer "MULTI" is designed for the measurement of β-γ-neutron coincidences in search for pygmy dipole resonances in exotic nuclei. It is based on many years of experience with spectrometer for direct measurement of the total reaction cross section with radioactive beams. Experimental technique includes measurement of the ratios between gamma-ray emission...
The Advanced Gas Reactor -5/6/7 (AGR-5/6/7) experiment was the fourth and final experiment in the AGR experiment series and completed irradiation in July 2020. It serves as the formal fuel qualification test for the TRISO fuels under development by the US Department of Energy. This experiment was designed to irradiate fuel particles at temperatures ranging from 800°C – 1500°C. The high end of...
In the field of samples observations by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), imaging material samples at elevated temperatures has got an increase of interest during the last decades. Performing in-situ observations at high temperature facilitates the understanding of materials behaviour when they are used under severe environments [1]. It is for instance the case of superalloys used for...
Confocal chromatic microscopy is an optical technique allowing measuring displacement, thickness, and roughness with a sub-micrometric precision [1]. Its operation principle relies on a wavelength encoding of the object position. The light emitted by a polychromatic source is transported by an optical fiber up to an optical system, called optical pen only composed of passive components and...
Facing more complex mining extraction issues, Orano Mining has implemented a development plan on implementing new instrumentation techniques. These new techniques are mainly in support of the geological control of our mine at SOMAIR in Niger and to respond to the problem of radioactive imbalance in the roll-fronts for our ISR (In Situ Recovery) mines of KATCO in Kazakhstan and in support of...
The Divertor Neutron Flux Monitor is the one of the neutron diagnostics of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor ITER. This diagnostic consists of three subsystems. Each subsystem consists of the detector module includes six fission chambers and the data acquisition system. Detector modules are placed on the inner shell of ITER Vacuum Vessel under the Divertor Cassette. Expected...
Research into materials and fuels for nuclear power reactors is carried out in so-called research reactors where various types of fuels and materials can be monitored online by in-core instruments. At the Halden reactor in Norway, online measurements such as cladding elongation, inner fuel rod pressure, fuel swelling, material creep and stress relaxation were based on Linear Variable...
Proton therapy is a cancer treatment technique that allows for a more selective application of dose to tumors in comparison with conventional radiotherapy with X- or $\gamma$-rays. This is due to the fact that higher dose is concentrated in the region where the protons stop, whereas far less dose is deposited in the traversed tissue. In this context, a system of imaging and dose verification...
The main drawback of all current theories of scintillation spectrometers is in introducing various terms into the formula for the energy resolution of scintillation spectrometers, without giving specific formulae for the relationship of these terms with characteristics of scintillation detectors. Such insertion of various contributions by “hands” is not only wrong but also counterproductive,...
Hard X-ray diagnosis is the most important diagnostic in Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) for studying low-hybrid wave physics and fast electrons, which helps to improve the operating performance and guarantee the operation safety of EAST Tokamak. The Hard X-Ray diagnostics used 16×16-channels pixel array Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) detector which has the features of high...
Portable electronic neutron generators are an established technology that can be used for many lab and field applications. Offering significant regulatory and operational benefits over radionuclide neutron sources, they start to be more widely used at universities and research centres. Beside the established industrial applications (e.g., in logging or mining industry), applications are being...
Radionuclide concentrations in the soil depend on the geological and anthropogenic activities of an area. They influence level of gamma radiation in the environment, which can cause significant health risk in humans. Due to the non-uniform distribution of radionuclides in the soil, various measurement methods have been adopted to monitor our environment. The challenges involved in collecting...
Since the beginning of using liquid scintillators for gamma-neutron separation, there have been many articles dealing with long-term degradation especially due to oxygen presented during scintillator encapsulation. The effect of aging of liquid organic scintillators namely EJ 301, EJ309 (both Eljen Technology), and new house-made cocktails based on...
Diamond detectors are going to be used in ITER neutron diagnostics, including the Vertical Neutron Camera (VNC). They are meant for neutron flux measurements and measurements of the energy spectrum of fast neutrons.
One of the main functions of VNC is measurement of the neutron source profile. In accordance with ITER requirements VNC has to calculate an updated neutron source profile each...
The Nuclear Measurement Laboratory (LMN) at CEA Cadarache in France uses high-energy electron linear accelerators, LINAC (9-20 MeV), to characterize nuclear waste drums or study corium-water interaction. These high-energy accelerators allow to explore new examination modalities, such as active photon interrogation or dual-energy CT to scan large concrete objects with diameters up to 140 cm....
Measurements of trace levels of environmental radioactivity, made with a broad energy germanium (BEGe) detector, for trace actinide (241Am) analysis of soils from the shores of two lakes in the English Lake District, UK, are described. In particular, the need to determine the radioactive concentration (Bq/g) in the soil samples with the intent being to discern natural and anthropogenic...
Neutron radiation detectors are essential in various fields, such as the nuclear power industry, nuclear medicine, scientific experimental systems and homeland security. However, the world is experiencing a shortage of 3He, which has been traditionally used as a key element for the detectors. LiF:ZnS(Ag) scintillator is an optional alternative for these detectors. This alternative main...
The possibility of using the fast neutron beam with the associated alpha particle technique (APT) by the specially designed tool for Carbon-to-Oxygen (C/O) nuclear well logging was investigated. Measurements were done to show the influence of borehole fluid, iron casing, and the cement around the casing on the C/O analysis. Tests were conducted by using fast neutrons, which is the conventional...
The detection of prompt gamma-rays exiting the patient during hadron therapy treatments could provide a way to achieve online range verification, which in turn would represent a key step in tumor oncology. However, the desired detector must be able to image gamma-rays from an large source and a broad spectrum in the few MeV region, while dealing with low statistics and low signal to noise...
The main idea of our project is to build a cheap gamma photon detector that can be assembled without buying expensive parts. This idea will be an Open Hardware Project so that everyone can try it out and make it better.
The basis of this project is the ability of the photodiodes to react to the gamma particles that pass through them. Since photodiodes are inexpensive, this makes it possible...
Plastic scintillators exhibiting pulse shape discrimination properties represent a promising, solid-state alternative to the use of organic liquids and crystals for the detection of neutron and gamma radiation. They are robust, inexpensive and can be fabricated in a variety of shapes and sizes. The time-dependent pulse shapes derived from plastic scintillation detectors can be characterised by...
Materials and core components for the next generation power reactors technologies require testing that can be performed in existing research reactors. Such experiments employ devices dedicated to reflect the relevant thermal and neutron parameters simulating conditions present in, for example, but not limited to, HTR reactors. A novel thermostatic irradiation device named ISHTAR...
Naturally occurring radioactive materials NORM are materials which may contain any of the primordial radionuclides or radioactive elements as they occur in nature, such as radium, uranium, thorium, potassium and their radioactive decay products, that are undisturbed as a result of human activities. furthermore, the technologically enhanced NORM, TENORM are generated in the form of by-products,...
Now, when the entire educational process had to be transferred to distance learning, we faced difficulties in performing laboratory and practical exercises, which require real laboratory equipment.
One option is virtual labs using a variety of distance learning platforms. In the 2020-2021 academic year at the Odessa National Polytechnic University to study the courses "Experimental Methods of...
The Nuclear Measurement Laboratory (LMN) at CEA Cadarache in France is developing a high-energy tomograph currently being upgraded to reach energies up to 20 MeV with high dose rates (100 Gy/min). It allows tomographies on massive objects (5 tons, 140 cm diameter) with a millimeter spatial resolution. For the control of absence of cracks, bubbles or defects in the concrete coating of some CEA...
Devices that generate ionizing radiation that operate with a short pulse time are increasingly used in industry, healthcare, and scientific research. In the case of pulsed operation, these devices create pulsed ionizing fields, which have different properties compared to those experienced at stationary sources. Correct measurement of pulsed spaces is a challenge for manufacturers and users, as...
Linked to experimental data acquisition and to development of improved models, a better detailed description of the behaviour of the nuclear ceramics as regards the fission gases release during thermal transients representative of accidental conditions such as RIA (Reactivity Initiated Accident) or LOCA (LOss of Coolant Accident) requires access to local information within the fuel pellet, and...
Many dosimetric measurement systems are not suitable for the application in pulsed radiation fields regarding radiation protection scenarios. Even in a low mean dose rate in the range of 1 µSv/h. A main challenge is to process high detector loads within short time periods, while an appropriate dead time behavior and the suppression of pile up effects must be ensured.
A promising approach for...
A Monte Carlo simulation study of four tentative radiation resistant materials (RRMs) at energies corresponding to proposed DT-neutron source up to 15 MeV using the JA-IPU code has been presented. The code incorporates full cascade development of both projectile neutron and energetic knocked on recoiling atoms. The code involves basic processes of elastic collision and ionization lose as well...
The core instrumentation of the EPR reactors consist of 12 exchangeable instrumentations, each with 6 fixed cobalt-self-powered neutron detectors and 3 type k thermocouples for core exit temperature, 40 measuring fingers of the aeroball measuring system using moveable steel ball stacks with vanadium as probes, as well as 4 level and dome temperature measurement probes. The exchangeable...
The knowledge of the fissile material mass is a key challenge to enhance radioactive waste management and to ensure a high level of safety in nuclear industry. The assessment of plutonium fissile mass by passive coincidence measurements is usually obtained by detecting the neutrons generated by the spontaneous fissions of Pu isotopes. The detection and the quantification of a fissile mass in...
Several concepts of new reactors use graphite. Some of them use graphite as a moderator, some of them as a reflector. There are at least two concepts of these graphite-type reactors under development in Czech Republic – the Energy Well and the Teplator. Both reactors use graphite as the reflector. An in-core measurement might be impossible to use due to various reasons, for instance high...
As gatekeepers of EU borders, customs authorities have seen their mission to detect and seize maximum amounts of illicit goods on their way to enter the EU become increasingly challenging. Partly due to the growing number of customs declarations and limited customs staff members, this situation can further be explained by the expanding range of threats EU customs have had to face. Next to the...
Nanodosimetry is a relatively young research field which could help provide a more thorough understanding of how radiation interacts with cells. The nanodosimeters currently available are unfit for clinical use, due to their large size. The aim of this project is the development and characterization of a portable nanodosimeter.
It is known that how radiation interacts with cells is...
An influence evaluation by background radiation on a silicon detector, which will be used to detect a coolant leakage, and be installed in a containment building of a nuclear power plant, was performed and the result was discussed. The detector that consists of a silicon sensor and preamplifier mounted in a shielding structure which composed of a 5 cm lead cylinder will be installed in an...
The neutron coincidence counting is one of the fundamental techniques for non-destructive assay of Nuclear Safeguards. Several types of data acquisition modules are currently in use for this technique that is used for nuclear material monitoring and verification. However, some of those modules are obsolete or approaching the production discontinuity, and this aspect represents a serious issue...
Gamma spectrometry is a non-destructive method used to identify and quantify the activity of gamma emitting radionuclides in a wide variety of samples, including environmental, waste, and radio pharmaceutical. Quantification of the activity of radionuclides in gamma spectrometry depends mostly on three inputs: efficiency calibration, peak area calculation and nuclide decay data. All three can...
We present the results of a series of radioactivity contamination tests on a novel contamination-safe scintillation detector to be used for alpha and beta radiation detection in water. Due to the short path-length of alpha and beta particles in water and the low detection limits needed to be compliant with the international legislations in matter of radiation safety for water intended for...
Natural Gamma Ray Sonde (NGRS) is a gamma-ray logging probe used by ORANO Mining to estimate the uranium content in boreholes by detecting the gamma emissions of the ore. The total gamma count rate recorded with a NaI(Tl) scintillation detector is converted into uranium concentration using a calibration coefficient (in s-1.ppmu-1 units) estimated thanks to different calibration blocks in...
The localization of radioactive sources is a fundamental information in the scope of radiative environment analysis, for nuclear safety or Decommissioning and Dismantling applications. However, performing this localization is challenging since conventional optics cannot be used for high-energy photons. One main method consists of using a coded mask aperture, placed in front of a position...
The increase of the particle flux (pile-up) at the HL-LHC with luminosities of L ≃ 7.5 ×
10$^{34}$ cm$^{−2}$s$^{−1}$ will have a severe impact on the ATLAS detector reconstruction and trigger
performance. The end-cap and forward region where the liquid Argon calorimeter has
coarser granularity and the inner tracker has poorer longitudinal vertex position resolution
will be particularly...
The new experiment S$^3$ devoted to the study of reactor antineutrinos was designed and constructed as a common activity of IEAP CTU in Prague and JINR (Dubna). The S$^3$ detector (40 x 40 x 40 cm$^3$) is a highly segmented polystyrene-based scintillating detector composed of 80 detector elements (40 x 20 x 1 cm$^3$) with a gadolinium neutron converter between elements layers. A positron and a...
The LEGEND Collaboration is searching for neutrinoless double beta ($0\nu\beta\beta$) decay in Germanium-76 ($^{76}$Ge) via a phased approach. The first of two phases, LEGEND-200 (L200), is currently under construction at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Italy and will use 200 kg of enriched High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors submerged in a liquid argon active shield in...
Timepix detectors (Timepix, Timepix2 and Timepix3) are hybrid pixel detectors that use a square matrix of $256\times 256$ pixels with 55 $\mu\mathrm{m}$ pitch. Thanks to their versatile design, compact form factor, desirable energy and time resolution, they have found applications in a variety of fields, e.g. radiation field characterization, tracking, dosimetry and imaging. In this...
Pulse Shape Discrimination (PSD) is a useful technique used to detect and distinguish between different types of radiation interactions. PSD methods are frequently adopted for n/γ or α/β discrimination. Over the years, many techniques for performing PSD were presented, both analog and digital implementations. A digital PSD enables implementation of complex algorithms, which analyze various...
In the past few years, there has been an increasing interest toward micromachined silicon radiation detectors, which use fabrication techniques normally adopted for Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS). In particular, Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE) by the Bosch process allows to obtain vertical electrodes in a variety of shapes and dimensions with high aspect ratio (depth to surface...
Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM) are becoming more attractive in radiation detection applications then the traditional photo multiplier tubes due to their low working voltage, compactness and immunity to electromagnetic interference (EMI). However, due to their small size, an array of SiPM components is required in order to cover the whole plane area of a scintillator. On the other hand, since...
The gamma camera is still employed in most Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) clinical scanners. In particular for large cameras it provides a balance between cost, reliability and performance that is hard to obtain for instance with modern CZT cameras. A standard gamma camera for full-body SPECT features a large area 50$\times$40~cm$^2$) scintillator coupled to an array of...
The LEGEND Collaboration aims to develop a phased, $^{76}$Ge-based double-beta decay experimental program with discovery potential at a half-life beyond 10$^{28}$ years. The first 200-kg phase, LEGEND-200, targets a discovery potential of 10$^{27}$ years by a background index of < 2·10$^{−4}$ cts/(keV·kg·yr).
Based on the success of GERDA a liquid argon (LAr) detector system will be...
In parametric amplification, a signal is amplified by mixing it with a pump wave in a nonlinear medium. During the last five years, Josephson Travelling Wave Parametric Amplifiers (JTWPAs) have proven to deliver near-quantum limited amplification for signals in the 5 to 10 GHz range with a large relative bandwidth of about 10%. This performance made them the workhorse for multi-qubit system...
The good knowledge of gamma spectrum in vicinity of nuclear reactor core is essential in characterization of radiation field. It is important for ensuring of radiation safety, but well described gamma field can be used also for testing of radiation measuring devices. The field in vicinity of reactor core is interesting for testing because in contrary to commonly use gamma fields formed by...
The development of new PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scanners with improved performance is still an important line of research in nuclear medicine. One current line of research in nuclear medicine is the study of a total-body scanner, the development of which would represent an improvement on the current features of PET scanners. Currently, the typical spatial resolution of the...
The CABRI experimental pulse reactor, located at the Cadarache nuclear research center, southern France, is devoted to the study of Reactivity Initiated Accidents (RIA). When certain conditions (mostly temperature, pressure and flowrate conditions) are obtained, a power excursion, triggered by the 3He reactivity injection system, is performed on a nuclear fuel test rod in order to simulate a...
Radiopharmaceuticals are drugs containing radionuclides and are routinely used in nuclear medicine for diagnosis or therapy of different diseases, mainly cancer. The main difficulties for nuclear medicine to assume a wider role in clinical practice are the availability of diagnostic/therapeutic isotopes and a technique for their specific localization in diseased sites.
The radionuclides of...
Fission chambers are widely used in nuclear reactors, either to occasionally probe the neutron flux maps in nuclear power plants or as part of the nuclear instrumentation used in research reactors to characterize neutron flux levels in irradiation locations. In the frame of the Jules Horowitz Reactor (JHR) under construction at the CEA CADARACHE site, the Instrumentation Sensors and Dosimetry...
ClearMind project aims to develop a fast detection module for TOF-PET.
We propose a position-sensitive detector consisting of a monolithic PbWO${_4}$ scintillating crystal on which is directly deposited a bialkali photoelectric layer. This detector optimizes the transmission of light photons to the photoelectric layer. Photons are generated by two processus : the Cherenkov effect and the...
Neutron imaging is a powerful tool in the field of non-destructive testing that utilizes the unique attenuation properties of neutrons to image high-density objects. The Penn State Breazeale Reactor (PSBR) at the Radiation Science and Engineering Center (RSEC) has had a neutron radiography facility for the last several decades. With the installation of a new core moderator assembly and new...
Whole gamma imaging (WGI) is our new imaging concept which combines PET and Compton imaging. By inserting a scatterer detector ring into a PET ring, two different modalities can be evaluated on the same platform. We developed a WGI prototype and demonstrated Compton imaging of 909 keV photons emitted from a 89Zr-injected mouse. While Compton imaging can avoid theoretical limitation...
Specific research reactors are capable of reproducing reactivity injection accidents in order to study the behavior of the nuclear fuel pins in accidental situations. The CABRI experimental pulse reactor, funded by IRSN (French Institute for Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety) and located at the Cadarache research center, is used to simulate power transients typical of reactivity initiated...
