The IRESNE Reactor Studies Department (DER) teams prepare and conduct integral experiments in various nuclear facilities both in France and abroad to validate their neutronic calculation tools.
Experiments are tailored to meet their scientific needs in neutronic data based on clearly defined specifications.
Proposals for experiments on different scales are assessed in terms of their representativeness and the transposition of phenomena occurring in nuclear power reactors.
Experimental programmes completed in facilities outside the CEA are listed below:
- Core neutronic characterisation measurements in the ENEA TAPIRO facility (Italy), with the objective of conducting a future experimental programme (AOSTA) to collect nuclear data on minor actinides using fission chambers designed and built by the CEA.
- Support measurements to determine the mean number of delayed neutrons emitted by the fission of
235U,
239Pu,
233U,
241Pu nuclei. These measurements fall within the scope of the collaborative programme called ALDEN - short for the “Average Lifetime of Delayed Neutrons” - which uses the PF1b cold neutron beam facility at the Laue-Langevin Institute (ILL). The first detection system used was calibrated in IRSN’s AMANDE neutron metrology facility at the CEA Cadarache centre.
- Study on the loss of coherence between the signal of a detector positioned in the reactor core and another detector positioned on the periphery of the core. The SPECTRON system was developed for a campaign to measure the fraction of delayed neutrons and the generation time for prompt neutrons using the neutron noise method in the LR-0 reactor at the Centrum Výzkumu Řež in the Czech Republic.