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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.
Edward P. Ficaro, David K. Wehe
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 117 | Number 3 | July 1994 | Pages 158-176
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE94-A28531
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The KENO-NR Monte Carlo code was developed to simulate the measurement of R(ω) = G*12(ω)G13(ω)/G11(ω)G23(ω), a ratio of spectral densities measured by the 252Cf source-driven noise analysis (CSDNA) method for determining subcriticality. From a direct comparison of simulated and measured R(ω), cross sections and the physical system model can be benchmarked and then used in standard criticality codes for determining keff for a multiplying system. This procedure eliminates the dependence of the CSDNA method on the point-kinetics model and allows cross-section and geometry models to be validated for noncritical configurations. For a set of uranium cylinders (93.2 wt% 235sU and 17.7-cm outer diameter) of varying height, the simulated and the measured R(ω) values in the low-frequency limit and the prompt neutron decay constant a agreed to within 10%. These results indicate that the approach of validating a simulation of the direct experimental data should lead to improved neutronic parameters for fissile systems.
