Determination of the kinetic parameters of the CALIBAN metallic core reactor from stochastic neutron measurements

Several experimental devices are operated by the Criticality and Neutron Science Research Dept. of the CEA Valduc Laboratory. One of these is the Caliban metallic core reactor. The purpose of this study is to develop and perform experiments allowing to determinate some of fundamental kinetic parameters of the reactor. The prompt neutron decay constant and particularly its value at criticality can be measured with reactor noise techniques such as Rossi-{alpha} and Feynman variance-to-mean methods. Subcritical, critical, and even supercritical experiments were performed. Fission chambers detectors were put nearby the core and measurements were analyzed with the Rossi-{alpha} technique. A new value of the prompt neutron decay constant at criticality was determined, which allows, using the Nelson number method, new evaluations of the effective delayed neutron fraction and the in core neutron lifetime. As an introduction of this paper, some motivations of this work are given in part 1. In part 2, principles of the noise measurements experiments performed at the CEA Valduc Laboratory are reminded. The Caliban reactor is described in part 3. Stochastic neutron measurements analysis techniques used in this study are then presented in part 4. Results of fission chamber experiments are summarized in part 5. Part 6more » is devoted to the current work, improvement of the experimental device using He 3 neutron detectors and first results obtained with it. Finally, conclusions and perspectives are given in part 7. (authors)« less