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MARVEL PDSA approval could serve as blueprint
MARVEL, the Microreactor Applications Research Validation and Evaluation project at Idaho National Laboratory, has had its preliminary documented safety analysis approved by the Department of Energy, marking a milestone in its development and serving as a potential outline for other microreactors in development.
K. Böhnel
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 90 | Number 1 | May 1985 | Pages 75-82
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE85-2
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Time correlation analysis of neutron detection is routinely applied in the quantitative determination of spontaneously fissioning isotopes, especially plutonium. Since these materials are usually also fissionable by the neutrons emitted, multiplication must be taken into account. A method is presented that allows calculation of the effect on characteristic parameters of the assay. These are the factorial moments of the probability distribution of the multiplicities of the neutrons emitted. The results can be written as analytic functions of the fission probability. They are given for the case of an energy spectrum common to all types of neutrons and for cases in which the source spectrum influences the probability of fission or the efficiency of detection.