https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-020-00334-7
Regular Article
Characterization of TRIGA RC-1 neutron irradiation facilities for radiation damage testing
1
Dipartimento di Fisica “G. Occhialini”, Università degli Studi di Milano - Bicocca, 20126, Milan, Italy
2
INFN sezione di Milano Bicocca, 20126, Milan, Italy
3
ENEA Centro Ricerche Casaccia, 00123, S. Maria di Galeria, Rome, Italy
* e-mail: davide.chiesa@mib.infn.it
Received:
21
November
2019
Accepted:
13
March
2020
Published online:
6
April
2020
This paper presents the results of neutron flux measurements at two irradiation facilities of the TRIGA Mark II reactor at ENEA Casaccia Research Center, Italy. The goal of these measurements is to provide a complete characterization of neutron irradiation facilities for accurate and precise dose evaluation in radiation damage tests and, more generally, for all applications that need a good knowledge of neutron flux in terms of intensity, energy spectrum and spatial distribution. The neutron activation technique is used to measure the activation rates of several reactions, chosen so to cover the whole energy range of neutron flux spectrum. A multi-group neutron flux measurement is obtained through an unfolding algorithm based on a Bayesian statistical model. The obtained results prove that this experimental method allows to measure the total neutron flux within 2% statistical uncertainty, and to get at the same time a good description of its energy spectrum and spatial distribution.
© Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature, 2020
