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Vega-Carrillo HR, Guadalupe Garcia-Reyna M, Angélica Marquez-Mata C, Vazquez-Bañuelos J, Eduardo Campillo-Rivera G, Bedenko SV. Effect of changing the neutron moderator in a thermal subcritical nuclear reactor. Appl Radiat Isot 2022; 188:110395. [PMID: 35939940 DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2022.110395] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2022] [Revised: 07/15/2022] [Accepted: 07/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Subcritical thermal nuclear reactor is the combination of nuclear fuel, moderator and external neutron source. Nevertheless, the amount of neutrons increases through nuclear fissions in the 235U in the fuel, the absorption and leakage of neutrons maintain the subcriticality condition. There are several subcritical reactors with different features and purposes. The open tank subcritical reactor Nuclear Chicago model 9000 is the heterogeneous combination of natural uranium, in hexagonal lattice, and light water, acting as moderator and reflector of neutrons, that uses a239PuBe neutron source. Worldwide there are several of these reactors mainly used in education, where due to the contact with water the Al tubes have corrosion. A possible solution is to use polyethylene as moderator. Aiming to evaluate the effect of changing the moderator, in this work Monte Carlo methods were used to model the reactor with polyethylene and water as moderators increasing the fuel load. For each model were estimated the keff and the μ parameters, and for Case 10a model was calculated the power, the Ambient dose equivalent and the fluence, of neutrons and γ-rays at five sites outside the reactor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hector Rene Vega-Carrillo
- Unidad Academica de Estudios Nucleares de la Universidad Autonoma de Zacatecas, C. Cipres 10, Fracc, La Peñuela, 98060, Zacatecas, Zac, Mexico; Programa de Doctorado en Ingenieria y Tecnologia Aplicada, Unidad Academica de Ingenieria Electrica de la Universidad Autonoma de Zacatecas, Av. Lopez Velarde 800, Col. Centro, 98000, Zacatecas, Zac, Mexico.
| | - Mayra Guadalupe Garcia-Reyna
- Programa de Doctorado en Ingenieria y Tecnologia Aplicada, Unidad Academica de Ingenieria Electrica de la Universidad Autonoma de Zacatecas, Av. Lopez Velarde 800, Col. Centro, 98000, Zacatecas, Zac, Mexico
| | - Claudia Angélica Marquez-Mata
- TecNM/ Instituto Tecnologico de Aguascalientes, Av. Adolfo Lopez Mateos 1801 Ote. Fracc. Bona Gens, 20256, Aguascalientes, Ags, Mexico
| | - Joel Vazquez-Bañuelos
- Programa de Doctorado en Ingenieria y Tecnologia Aplicada, Unidad Academica de Ingenieria Electrica de la Universidad Autonoma de Zacatecas, Av. Lopez Velarde 800, Col. Centro, 98000, Zacatecas, Zac, Mexico
| | - Guillermo Eduardo Campillo-Rivera
- Programa de Doctorado en Ingenieria y Tecnologia Aplicada, Unidad Academica de Ingenieria Electrica de la Universidad Autonoma de Zacatecas, Av. Lopez Velarde 800, Col. Centro, 98000, Zacatecas, Zac, Mexico
| | - Sergey V Bedenko
- School of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Tomsk Polytechnic University, 634030, Tomsk, Russia
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