A Simple and Practical Correction Technique for Reactivity Worth of Short-Sized Samples Measured by Critical-Water-Level Method

Abstract

An inconsistency between the reactivity worth of short-sized samples measured by the critical-water-level (CWL) method and that conventionally analyzed for validating nuclear data and nuclear calculation methods has been known. The present study investigated this inconsistency in terms of a simple theoretical framework and proposed a simple and practical technique for correcting the measured sample reactivity worth without making supplementary experiments. A series of Monte Carlo calculations that simulated typical sample reactivity worth measurement by the CWL method showed that this inconsistency is effectively reduced by the present correction technique.

Keywords:

• Critical-water-level method
• reactivity worth
• short-sized sample

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their thanks to S. Okajima and T. Sakurai of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) for giving the motivation of the present study. The authors are grateful to K. Nishihara of JAEA for his valuable comments.