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Godzilla is helping ITER prepare for tokamak assembly
ITER employees stand by Godzilla, the most powerful commercially available industrial robot available. (Photo: ITER)
Many people are familiar with Godzilla as a giant reptilian monster that emerged from the sea off the coast of Japan, the product of radioactive contamination. These days, there is a new Godzilla, but it has a positive—and entirely fact-based—association with nuclear energy. This one has emerged inside the Tokamak Assembly Preparation Building of ITER in southern France.
Ernesto C. Vanterpool, Rudolf E. Slovacek, Donald R. Harris, Robert C. Block
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 110 | Number 2 | February 1992 | Pages 186-194
Technical Notes | doi.org/10.13182/NSE92-A23888
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Interrogation neutrons from 3 eV to 3 keV are used to determine the relative sensitivity of a spent light water reactor fuel assembly assay system. The fuel assay system used for this measurement consists of three threshold fission chambers installed in the Rensselaer intense neutron spectrometer, a 75-t lead slowing-down-time spectrometer at the Gaerttner Linac Laboratory. The fission chambers detect fission neutrons from a simulated fuel assembly, an aluminum enclosure filled with depleted uranium oxide (0.2% 235U), and a 235U (93%) metal foil sample placed at various locations throughout the assembly. The measurements with the assembly are compared with a Monte Carlo analysis of an homogenized pressurized water reactor fuel assembly. This is concluded to be a practical method for the assay of spent fuel.