Measurement of Thermal Neutron Capture Cross Section and Resonance Integral of the Reaction 133Cs(n, γ)134m,134gCs

RECENT VALIDATION STUDY OF THE TECHNIQUE FOR EXPRESS EVALUATION OF BURNUP IN LEAKING FUEL ASSEMBLIES OF WWER POWER UNITS

The present work continues the series of papers on the revision of the conventional technique for evaluation of leaking fuel burnup during reactor operation at nuclear power plants (NPPs). The focus was made on reduction of uncertainties in evaluation of leaking fuel burnup in modern fuel cycles at WWER-1000 power units. A set of models was proposed for express calculation of the build-up of caesium isotopes in fuel and to relate 134Cs/137Cs activity ratio with fuel burnup for each rod in the core. These models are based on routine neutronic calculations of pin-by-pin linear heat generation rates which are performed at NPPs for each particular fuel cycle with particular core loading pattern (however, these calculations do not provide data on caesium inventory in fuel). Previously, the proposed models have been validated against several practical cases. This latest validation study relied on the analysis of the most recent fuel cycles at two NPPs that reported spike-events and identified the leaking fuel assemblies (LFAs) after the reactor shutdown. The calculated 134Cs/137Cs activity ratios in the fuel of the LFAs were compared to the NPPs data on the activity measurements, and to the post-irradiation examination (PIE) data provided for one FA. A reasonable agreement between the model predictions and the experimental data on 134Cs/137Cs activity ratios in the fuel as a function of its burnup is shown for the advanced FA designs in modern fuel cycles.

Surface lattice dynamics and electron-phonon interaction in cesium ultra-thin films

The phonon dispersion curves of ultrathin films of Cs(110) on Pt(111) measured with inelastic helium atom scattering (HAS) are reported and compared with density-functional perturbation theory (DFPT) calculations. The combined HAS and DFPT analysis also sheds light on the bulk phonon dynamics of bcc-Cs, on which very little is known from neutron scattering due to its large neutron capture cross-section. Moreover the temperature dependence of the elastic HAS Debye-Waller exponent of Cs(110)/Cu(111) ultrathin films allows for an estimation of the electron-phonon coupling strength λ as a function of the film thickness.