Excore Neutron Flux Monitoring Method for an Accelerator Driven Sub-critical System

Key words: 
• accelerator driven sub-critical system /
• fission chamber /
• uncompensated ion chamber

Abstract: In an accelerator driven sub-critical (ADS) system, power control in sub-critical reactor is achieved through the control of the beam current. Excore neutron flux monitoring in an ADS system, not only provides indication of reactor power, but also provides important inputs to reactor protection system during startup and power operation, and thus plays a very important role in the control and protection of ADS system. This paper presents the excore neutron flux monitoring method which uses three fission chambers (FCs) and three uncompensated ion chambers (UICs). With three operation modes, pulse mode, current mode, and mean square voltage mode, an FC can monitor reactor power over a wide range from the source range to the intermediate and power ranges. The proposed monitoring method increases the redundancy of independent monitoring channels, improves the reliability of the protection system, and provides more information on axial power distribution. Since these neutron detectors are sensitive to the neutron energy spectrum, we propose an effective calibration method to provide the exact value of neutron flux, i.e., these neutron detectors are calibrated with a standardized neutron source, and then, a correction factor is added in the calibration by comparing the neutron energy spectrum of the neutron source with that in ADS system. Based on Geant4 simulation, the correction factors of 5 and 42 are extracted for FCs and UICs, respectively.