Abstract
The Rhode Island Nuclear Science Center reactor, a 2 MW light water research reactor, was converted from a highly enriched uranium core to a more compact low enriched uranium core in 1993. Thermal neutron flux measurements of the instrumented beamports indicate increased thermal flux and a large improvement in the thermal to epithermal ratio. Measurements of irradiation facilities indicate an increased thermal flux, and more potential irradiation positions are now available.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 433-445 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment |
Volume | 365 |
Issue number | 2-3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 11 1995 |
Externally published | Yes |
Funding
The authors acknowledget he extensivew ork on the conversion by E.F. Spring, B.R. Smith, and J.J. Cunningham of RINSC, and the calculationsb y S.C. MO, K.E. Freese, and J.E. Matos of Argonne National Laboratory. They want to thank Professor A. Steyerl for use of the reflectometer,a nd B.J. Ray and N.F. Lewis for use of NAA calibration data. U.J. and M.L.C. were partially supportedb y USDOE (Division of Materials Sciences)c ontract DE-FG02-91ER45445, and M.L.C. by contract DE-AC05840R21400 (with Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc.). The LEU conversion was supportedb y the US Department of Energy reduced enrichment program (DE-FG07-86ER75270) and upgrades were supported by the reactor instrumentation program (DE-FG07-90ER12980).