Neutron Fluence and Kerma Responses to Bare, Steel-Reflected, and Lucite-Reflected Steady-State Operations of the ORNL Health Physics Research Reactor

The experiments evaluated in this report were conducted at the Health Physics Research Reactor (HPRR), also known as the Fast Burst Reactor. The reactor was designed and built at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in 1961. In this evaluation, a total of 12 experiments were evaluated (6 shield configurations and two responses). Six of them are considered acceptable as benchmark experiments and are thoroughly described: the measurands are bare, steel-shielded and Lucite-shielded neutron fluences and neutron KERMA responses to steady-state operations of the HPRR. It is important to mention that there is a general lack of information in the experimental methodology and neutron spectrum unfolding, and in some cases, unexpected and unexplained discrepancies between calculation and experiment. The HPRR’s unique characteristics were that it is a fast reactor, the use of a Lucite shield as the shielding material, and the use of the neutron fluence as the main benchmark measurand. There are no known, significant correlations between benchmarks in this evaluation and benchmarks in other evaluations.. Authors: Dupont, Mathieu N. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)]; Celik, Cihangir [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)] (ORCID:0000000173870216); Heinrichs, Daniel P. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)]; Weldon, Robert Allen [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)]. DOE Contract: AC05-00OR22725. Subjects: 21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS; 73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS; Fast Burst Reactor; Health Physics Research Reactor (HPRR); KERMA; Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)