Volume 80, Issue 2

Proton-, deuteron-, triton-, 3 He, and α-particle production cross-sections were evaluated for proton induced reactions for 278 stable target nuclei with an atomic number from 3 to 83 for a number of incident proton energies from 62 to 1200 MeV using available experimental data and results of model calculations. Data obtained can be used for the evaluation of gas production cross-sections and gas production rates in reactions induced by intermediate energy protons. An example of the use of the data is given for 9 Be(p,x) reactions.

The Advanced Heavy water Reactor (AHWR) is a natural circulation vertical pressure tube type boiling light water cooled and heavy water moderated reactor. As the AHWR fuel bundle quenching under accident condition is designed primarily with radial jets at several axial locations, bottom re-flooding still remain open as another option. Radial direction injection of emergency core cooling leads to rewetting of AHWR fuel cluster in circumferential direction. A 3D fuel pin model has been developed by using Finite Difference Method (FDM) of transient heat conduction equation. Alternating Direction Implicit technique of Finite Difference Method (FDM) has been used for discretisation of numerical equation in different time step at different direction. Sensitivity numerical study with respect to direction of ADI method has been carried out to optimize the time step during the transient as well as steady state and is found that it is insensitivity with direction of solution. Further, to assess influence of circumferential rewetting vis-à-vis axial rewetting. Both the analyses are carried out with same fluid temperature and heat transfer coefficients as boundary conditions. It has been found from the analyses that for radial jet, the circumferential conduction is significant and overall the fuel temperature falls in the quench plane with the initiation of quenching event. The paper discusses the sensitivity study with respect to direction of ADI solution and comparison of numerical results for circumferential and axial rewetting for single pin.

T-pipe designs have been widely used in the industry. Among them, mixing of hot and cold water is a common application. In the mixing process, cold and hot fluids are respectively injected through main and branch pipes, and are mixed in the downstream area of T-tube. High temperature hot water flows through the main pipe for a long time; hence, the pipe wall is at high temperatures. The fluid injected into the branch pipe is a cooling fluid. After mixing, the wall of the main pipe is under high thermal fluctuations causing strong thermal stresses, which will eventually lead to pipe damage and water loss. Through flow rate adjustments of the branch and main pipes, when the branch/main velocity ratio was greater than 7.8, showing that cold water hit the bottom of the main pipe and created a reverse flow. This reverse flow created large thermal stresses on the wall. Hence, the branch/main velocity ratio and the hot-water-mixing phenomenon are the focus of this study.

Boiling heat transfer has a high heat removal capability in convective cooling. However, the heat removal capability of downward-facing boiling is significantly worse than that of upward-facing cases because of the confined buoyancy effect. This study was inspired by the conception of external reactor vessel cooling (ERVC) condition relevant to the in-vessel retention (IVR) design of Westinghouse AP1000 plant. In the present study, a small-scale test facility had been established to investigate the local phenomena of boiling heat transfer under a downward-facing horizontal heated surface with impinging coolant flow. In this study, the surface temperature, heat flux information and several specific scenes of bubbles are taken down throughout the boiling processes for detailed investigation. It is observed that bubbles are confined under the downward-facing heated surface, which causes a worse heat transfer rate and a lower critical heat flux (CHF) limit than upward-facing boiling. Nevertheless, the impinging coolant flow is found to disturb the thermal boundary layer formed by the heated surface, so the CHF increases with an increase of coolant flow rate. In addition, during nucleate boiling, it is discovered that the growth, combination and dissipation of bubbles induce turbulent wakes and therefore enhance the heat transfer capability.

Operating experience feedback is an effective mechanism to provide lessons learned from the events and the associated corrective actions to prevent recurrence of events, resulting in improving safety in the nuclear installations. This paper analyzes the events of safety significance that have been occurred at research reactors and discusses the root causes and lessons learned from these events. Insights from literature on events at research reactors and feedback from events at nuclear power plants that are relevant to research reactors are also presented along with discussions. The results of the analysis showed the importance of communication of safety information and exchange of operating experience are vital to prevent reoccurrences of events. The analysis showed also the need for continued attention to human factors and training of operating personnel, and the need for establishing systematic ageing management programmes of reactor facilities, and programmes for safety management of handling of nuclear fuel, core components, and experimental devices.

The objective of this work is to demonstrate the regulatory requirements pertaining to calibration of monitoring instruments in research reactors. The regulatory statements concerning this subject in IAEA safety standards and the implementation of such regulations in twelve countries with different levels of nuclear programs are surveyed: Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, United Kingdom of England and United States of America. In addition, the requirements of ISO/IEC17025 and NUPIC (Nuclear Utilities Procurement Issues Committee) are compared. Seven technical and administrate aspects are suggested as the comparison criteria and the explicit expression of the statements, the level of document (i. e.: act, requirement or guide) are the considered resources. The main differences and similarities between the different approaches are identified in order to provide an input for future development of the national regulations.

The characteristics of dust in a plasma sheath are investigated in the presence of an external magnetic field and taking into account neutral collision forces. By using the fluid model, the continuity and momentum equations of ions and dusts are solved numerically with various magnitudes of collision force. In various magnitude and directions of the magnetic field, the electron and ion density distribution, ion flow velocity, electron potential have been calculated. It is shown that magnetic field has obvious effect on the plasma sheath and the collision force reduces the dust kinetic energy.

In recent years, due to the sophistication offered by the Internet, strategic organizations like nuclear power plants are linked to the outside world communication through the Internet. The entry of outside world communication into strategic organization (nuclear power plant) increases the hacker's attempts to crack its security and to trace any information which is being sent among the top level officials. Information security system in nuclear power plant is very crucial as even small loophole in the security system will lead to a major disaster. Recent cyber attacks in nuclear power plant provoked information security professionals to look deeply into the information security aspects of strategic organizations (nuclear power plant). In these lines, Shamir secret sharing scheme with dynamic access structure (SSSDAS) is proposed in the paper which provides enhanced security by providing dynamic access structure for each node in different hierarchies. The SSSDAS algorithm can be applied to any strategic organizations with hierarchical structures. In this paper the possible scenarios where SSSDAS algorithm can be applied to nuclear power plant is explained as a case study. The proposed SSSDAS scheme identifies the wrong shares, if any, used for reconstruction of the secret. The SSSDAS scheme also address the three major security parameters namely confidentiality, authentication and integrity.

P N approximation is applied to neutron transport equation in spherical geometry using Anlı-Güngör (AG) and Henyey-Greenstein (HG) phase functions. These phase functions are used for calculating critical radius and results of P N approximation obtained from AG and HG phase functions are compared with each other for different collision scattering function. The numerical results obtained from AG and HG phase functions are presented in the tables and these results are compared.

A nodal formulation of a fixed-source two-dimensional neutron transport problem, in Cartesian geometry, defined in a heterogeneous medium, is solved by an analytical approach. Explicit expressions, in terms of the spatial variables, are derived for averaged fluxes in each region in which the domain is subdivided. The procedure is an extension of an analytical discrete ordinates method, the ADO method, for the solution of the two-dimensional homogeneous medium case. The scheme is developed from the discrete ordinates version of the two-dimensional transport equation along with the level symmetric quadrature scheme. As usual for nodal schemes, relations between the averaged fluxes and the unknown angular fluxes at the contours are introduced as auxiliary equations. Numerical results are in agreement with results available in the literature.

The paper presents the results of radiological investigations of food products sampled in the summer and fall of 2011 and 2012 in different parts of Van, Turkey. Gross radioactivity measurements in food products were evaluated. Food items were divided into eight groups: (1) water, (2) fish, (3) cheese products, (4) fruits, (5) vegetables, (6) herbs, (7) walnut and (8) rock salt. The levels of the gross alpha and gross beta radioactivity in all food samples varied widely ranging from 0.070 to 10.885 Bq/g and from 0.132 to 48.285 Bq/g on dry mass basis, respectively. In one sample, gross alpha and gross beta activity concentrations were found to be relatively high according to the other samples and in all samples, the gross alpha radioactivity was measured lower than the gross beta radioactivity. The gross α and gross β activities were measured by using α/β counter of the multi-detector low background system (PIC MPC-9604).

In this article the development of a gamma spectroscopy system is described using a scintillation detector NaI(Tl) of 3 inch × 3 inch. The readout electronic for the spectroscopy is built from the fast analog-digital conversion of Flash Analog-Digital Converter (Flash-ADC) 250 MHz – 8 bits resolution, and the embedded Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology. The embedded VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) code for FPGA is built in such a way that it works as a multi channel analyser (MCA) with 4096 Digital Charge Integration (DCI) channels. A pulse generator with frequency varying from Hz up to 12 kHz is used to evaluate the time response of the system. Two standard radioisotope sources of 133 Ba and 152 Eu with multi gamma energies ranging from several tens keV to MeV are used to evaluate the linearity and energy resolution of the system.