<p> Part A Abstract </p> <p> Temperature coefficients of reactivity for an 37-element reference design of a thorium oxide fuelled, heavy water moderated and cooled reactor, are calculated. The physical processes which determine magnitude and sign of the coefficients are identified and discussed. Results are given for fresh fuel containing equilibrium concentrations of the fission product Xe-135 and with boron control in the moderator. Results are. also -given for fresh fuel with the equilibrium concentration of Xe-135 but without boron contorl for fuel with an exposue of 1.513 n/k barn and for fuel with an exposure of 3.13 n/k barn; each containing appropriate concentrations of 50 separate nuclides and one-pseudo fission product. The fuel temperature coefficient of reactivity is negative for all the cases studied, while the coolant temperature coefficient of reactivity is positive for all the cases studied. The void effect is an increase in reactivity for all cases studied. </p> ////////////////////// <p> Part B Abstract </p> <p> This work has been done with the purpose of studying the validity of Bragg Kleeman rule which states that for combinations of elements, the atomic stopping cross-sections are additive. The validity of Bragg Kleeman rule for low energy He ions has not been conclusively tested for solids. In this work, the comparison with the experimental stopping power of SiC with the additive stopping powers of Si and C has been made experimentally. </p> <p> A thick target technique in the experimental evaluation of the stopping powers is used. This method has some simplicity over the thin target techniques. </p> <p> A calibration of the McMaster University Van-de Graff accelerator was done. Experiments were conducted later using the calibration curves produced. </p> <p> The report contains a brief account on different sources of errors due to the Van-de-Graff accelerator calibration and due to stopping power experiments. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The work presented here develops a gamma-ray spectral construction and analysis software tool that was used to analyze multi-detector data collected using a digital spectrometer with list mode capabilities. The tool was used to parse the output from three detectors and generate new spectra that the user chooses from post-processing suppression routines, such as simulated anticoincidence and coincidence spectra. Part of this research was also to characterize the improvements in the detection limits and the various detector efficiencies from this method as opposed to creating these spectra using traditional electronic gating systems. A focus is placed on the detection capability improvements for nuclear forensics purposes, particularly the identification and quantification of fission product samples, and structuring the code framework for handling these types of time-dependent samples while increasing the versatility of the detector system. Improvements to the minimum detectable activity for a series of fission products was accomplished through post-processing suppression methods and multi-dimensional spectral data structures are now achievable. / text

Les rendements des produits de fission font partie des données nucléaires sur lesquellesreposent les simulations neutroniques. L’objectif de cette thèse est d’apporter de nouvellesmesures de rendements de fission de deux noyaux fissiles : le 241Pu et l’233U. Ces noyauxappartiennent respectivement au cycle du combustible de l’uranium et à celui du thorium.Ces mesures ont été réalisées auprès du spectromètre de masse Lohengrin de l’InstitutLaue Langevin (ILL) à Grenoble. Le spectromètre est combiné avec une chambre d’ionisationpour mesurer les rendements en masse de l’233U et du 241Pu et avec un dispositif despectrométrie gamma pour déterminer les rendements isotopiques de l’233U.Une nouvelle procédure d’analyse innovante a été mise en place dans le but de maîtriserles systématiques et de réduire les biais expérimentaux. La matrice de variance-covarianceassociée à nos mesures de rendements a ainsi pu être calculée pour la première fois. / Fission product yields are significant nuclear data for neutronic simulations. The purposeof this work is to improve fission yield knowledge for two fissile nuclei : 241Pu and 233U. Thoseare respectively involved in the uranium and thorium nuclear fuel cycle.The measurements are performed at the Lohengrin mass spectrometer of the InstitutLaue-Langevin (ILL) located in Grenoble. The spectrometer is combined with an ionizationchamber to measure mass yields of 241Pu and 233U and with a gamma spectrometry set-upto determine isotopic yields of 233U.A new analysis method of experimental data has been developed in order to controlsystematics and to reduce experimental biases. For the first time, the experimental variancecovariancematrix of our measured fission yields could be deduced.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:46:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T13:59:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 07538.pdf: 15080131 bytes, checksum: 61c8c07c573a7c36c667a13b30f71666 (MD5) / Dissertacao (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:46:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T13:59:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 07538.pdf: 15080131 bytes, checksum: 61c8c07c573a7c36c667a13b30f71666 (MD5) / Dissertacao (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

En rampe de puissance, le combustible nucléaire est soumis à d'importantes contraintes thermiques et mécaniques, et subit une modification profonde de son environnement chimique. Le combustible contraint fortement la gaine, notamment au niveau des zones inter-pastilles, ce qui, associé au relâchement de produits de fission corrosifs, peut conduire à sa rupture par corrosion sous contraintes. Les évolutions simultanées de la mécanique, de la thermique et de la chimie du combustible sont liées, et participent au bon ou mauvais comportement de l'UO2 en rampe de puissance. L'objectif de ce travail est de modéliser à l'échelle d'une pastille de combustible, l'évolution couplée de la chimie, de la thermique et de la mécanique, et de préciser l'impact de ces couplages sur le comportement de l'UO2 en rampe de puissance. La finalité est d'évaluer un terme source en relâchement d'iode pour alimenter les modèles de corrosion sous contraintes dédiés aux études d'Interaction Pastille-Gaine. / Nuclear fuels under power transient undergo high thermal and mechanical stresses, as well as deep chemical modifications. Stresses on the cladding at the inter-pellet plane due to the pellet thermal expansion, associated to the corrosive fission product release, can lead to clad failures, resulting from a stress corrosion cracking mechanism. The thermal, mechanical and chemical properties of the UO2 irradiated fuel are closely dependent and play a major role on the behavior of the material during a power transient. The aim of this work is to model at the pellet scale the chemical, thermal and mechanical coupled changes of the UO2 fuel during a power transient scenario and to evaluate the consequences on the fuel behavior. The final objective is to obtain an evaluation of the iodine release source term to be used in I-SCC modelling codes dedicated to Pellet-Clad-Interaction studies.