The delayed neutron emission rates of U-235 and Pu-239 samples were measured accurately from a thermal fission reaction. A Monte Carlo calculation using the Geant4 code was used to demonstrate the neutron energy independence of the detector used in the counting station. A set of highly purified actinide samples (U-235 and Pu-239) was irradiated in these experiments by using the Texas A&M University Nuclear Science Center Reactor. A fast pneumatic transfer system, an integrated computer control system, and a graphite-moderated counting system were constructed to perform all these experiments. The calculated values for the five-group U-235 delayed neutron parameters and the six-group Pu-239 delayed neutron parameters were compared with the values recommended by Keepin et al. (1957) and Waldo et al. (1981). These new values differ slightly from literature values. The graphite-moderated counting station and the computerized pneumatic system are now operational for further delayed neutron measurement.

<p> Fission-product bromine was isolated from a uranium target by the hot-atom reaction of the fission recoils with methane to form organic bromides. The organically-bound bromine was shown to be formed preferentially by primary (independently-formed) bromine with little contribution from secondary bromine. </p> <p> The delayed-neutron activity of the short-lived bromine isotopes was analyzed to obtain the relative yields of delayed neutrons from Br8?, Br88 and Br89 produced as primary fission products. The relative delayed-neutron yields are summarized below. (see abstract in text) </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

In a nuclear reactor, delayed neutrons play a critical role in sustaining a controllable chain reaction. Delayed neutron’s relative yields and decay constants are very important for modeling reactivity control and have been studied for decades. Researchers have tried different experimental and numerical methods to assess these delayed neutron parameters. The reported parameter values vary widely, much more than the small statistical errors reported with these parameters. Interestingly, the reported parameters fit their individual measurement data well in spite of these differences. This dissertation focuses on evaluation of the errors and methods of delayed neutron relative yields and decay constants for thermal fission of U-235. Various numerical methods used to extract the delayed neutron parameter from the measured data, including Matrix Inverse, Levenberg-Marquardt, and Quasi-Newton methods, were studied extensively using simulated delayed neutron data. This simulated data was Poisson distributed around Keepin’s theoretical data. The extraction methods produced totally different results for the same data set, and some of the above numerical methods could not even find solutions for some data sets. Further investigation found that ill-conditioned matrices in the objective function were the reason for the inconsistent results. To find a reasonable solution with small variation, a regularization parameter was introduced using a numerical method called Ridge Regression. The results from the Ridge Regression method, in terms of goodness of fit to the data, were good and often better than the other methods. Due to the introduction of a regularization number in the algorithm, the fitted result contains a small additional bias, but this method can guarantee convergence no matter how large the coefficient matrix condition number. Both saturation and pulse modes were simulated to focus on different groups. Some of the factors that affect the solution stability were investigated including initial count rate, sample flight time, initial guess values. Finally, because comparing reported delayed neutron parameters among different experiments is useless to determine if their data actually differs, methods are proposed that can be used to compare the delayed neutron data sets.

The ability to quickly and accurately quantify fissile constituents in bulk materials remains essential to many aspects of nuclear forensics and for safeguarding nuclear materials and operations. This often entails the analysis of trace quantities of nuclear debris or effluents, and typically requires bulk sample digestion followed by actinide separation and mass spectrometry. Because destructive methods are time and labor intensive, efforts have been made to develop alternative nondestructive methods for this type of analysis. This work, performed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory at the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), seeks to utilize delayed neutron activation analysis on samples of interest containing multiple fissile constituents. Based on the variances in the fission product yields of individual fissile nuclides, this work utilizes methods of linear regression to derive a technique that allows for such analysis, forgoing chemical separation and using only a single irradiation and counting step. / text

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Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第17234号 / 工博第3661号 / 新制||工||1556(附属図書館) / 29980 / 京都大学大学院工学研究科原子核工学専攻 / (主査)教授 中島 健, 教授 福山 淳, 准教授 山本 俊弘 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

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Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:53:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T13:59:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Uma nova metodologia para a medida absoluta da fração efetiva de nêutrons atrasados &beta;eff, baseada em técnicas de análise de ruído microscópico e no modelo de Duas- Regiões, foi desenvolvida no reator IPEN/MB-01. Diferentemente das demais técnicas, tais como o Método de Bennet Modificado, o Método do Número de Nelson e o Método da fonte de 252Cf, a principal vantagem da metodologia proposta é a obtenção de &beta;eff de um modo puramente experimental, sem a necessidade de quaisquer outros parâmetros, sejam estes calculados ou provenientes de outros experimentos. Com a finalidade de validar este novo método, uma série de experimentos Rossi-&alpha; e Feynman-&alpha; foram realizados no reator IPEN/MB-01. De acordo com a metodologia proposta, &beta;eff foi estimado com uma incerteza de 0.67%, a qual atende aos requisitos de precisão almejados. Além disso, o tempo de geração de nêutrons prontos , dentre outros parâmetros, também foi obtido experimentalmente via esta metodologia. Em geral, os parâmetros medidos estão em acordo com resultados provenientes de experimentos de análise de ruído macroscópico. Nas comparações teoria-experimento, os valores de &beta;eff medidos neste trabalho mostram que a biblioteca JENDL3.3 apresenta a melhor performance (dentro de 1%). Esta concordância justifica a redução no yield de fissão do 235U proposta por Sakurai e Okajima. / Tese (Doutoramento) / IPEN/T / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP / FAPESP:03/01261-0