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This document presents the facility-recommended characterization of the neutron, prompt gamma-ray, and delayed gamma-ray radiation fields in the Annular Core Research Reactor (ACRR) for the polyethylene-lead-graphite (PLG) bucket in the central cavity on the 32-inch pedestal at the core centerline. The designation for this environment is ACRR-PLG-CC-32-cl. The neutron, prompt gamma-ray, and delayed gamma-ray energy spectra, uncertainties, and covariance matrices are presented as well as radial and axial neutron and gamma-ray fluence profiles within the experiment area of the bucket. Recommended constants are given to facilitate the conversion of various dosimetry readings into radiation metrics desired by experimenters. Representative pulse operations are presented with conversion examples. Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank the Annular Core Research Reactor staff and the Radiation Metrology Laboratory staff for their support of this work. Also thanks to David Ames for his assistance in running MCNP on the Sandia parallel machines.

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This document presents the facility-recommended characterization of the neutron, prompt gamma-ray, and delayed gamma-ray radiation fields in the Annular Core Research Reactor (ACRR) for the 44-inch-long lead-boron bucket in the central cavity on the 32-inch pedestal at the core centerline. The designation for this environment is ACRR-LB44-CC-32-cl. The neutron, prompt gamma-ray, and delayed gamma-ray energy spectra are presented as well as radial and axial neutron and gamma-ray flux profiles within the experiment area of the bucket. Recommended constants are given to facilitate the conversion of various dosimetry readings into radiation metrics desired by experimenters. Representative pulse and steady-state operations are presented with conversion examples.

The Annular Core Research Reactor (ACRR) at Sandia National Laboratories is a water-moderated pool-type reactor designed for testing many types of objects in the pulse and steady-state mode of operations. Personnel at Sandia began working to improve the repeatability of pulse operations for experimenters in the facility. The ACRR has a unique UO2-BeO fuel that makes the task of producing repeatable pulses difficult with the current operating procedure. The ACRR produces a significant quantity of photoneutrons through the 9Be(γ, n)8Be reaction in the fuel elements. The photoneutrons are the result of the gammas produced during fission and in fission product decay, so their production is very much dependent on the reactor power history and changes throughout the day/week of experiments in the facility. Because the photoneutrons interfere with the delayed-critical measurements required for accurate pulse reactivity prediction, a new operating procedure was created. The photoneutron effects at delayed critical are minimized when using the modified procedure. In addition, the pulse element removal time is standardized for all pulse operations with the modified procedure, and this produces less variation in reactivity removal times. Copyright © 2012 by ASTM International,.

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High fidelity active dosimetry in the mixed neutron/gamma field of a research reactor is a very complex issue. For passive dosimetry applications, the use of activation foils addresses the neutron environment while the use of low neutron response CaF2:Mn thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) addresses the gamma environment. While radiation-hardened diamond photoconducting detectors (PCD) have been developed that provide a very precise fast response (picosecond) dosimeter and can provide a time-dependent profile for the radiation environment, the mixed field response of the PCD is still uncertain and this interferes with the calibration of the PCD response. In order to address the research reactor experimenter's need for a dosimeter that reports silicon dose and dose rate at a test location during a pulsed reactor operation, a silicon calorimeter has been developed. This dosimeter can be used by itself to provide a dose in rad(Si) up to a point in a reactor pulsed operation, or, in conjunction with the diamond PCD, to provide a dose rate. This paper reports on the development, testing, and validation of this silicon calorimeter for applications in water-moderated research reactors. Copyright © 2006 by ASTM International.

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