A new series of subcritical measurements has been conducted at the zero-power Walthousen Reactor Critical Facility (RCF) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) using a 3 He neutron multiplicity detector. The Critical and Subcritical 0-Power Experiment at Rensselaer (CaSPER) campaign establishes a protocol for advanced subcritical neutron multiplication measurements involving research reactors for validation of neutron multiplication inference techniques, Monte Carlo codes, and associated nuclear data. | Progress in Nuclear Energy 106 2018 120 139 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Progress in Nuclear Energy journal homepage locate pnucene Development of a research reactor protocol for neutron multiplication T measurements Jennifer Arthura b Rian Bahrana Jesson Hutchinsona Avneet Sooda Nicholas Thompsona Sara A. Pozzib a Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos NM 87545 United States b University of Michigan Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Ann Arbor MI 48109 United States A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T Keywords A new series of subcritical measurements has been conducted at the zero-power Walthousen Reactor Critical Research reactor Facility RCF at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute RPI using a 3He neutron multiplicity detector. The Critical Neutron multiplicity and Subcritical 0-Power Experiment at Rensselaer CaSPER campaign establishes a protocol for advanced Monte carlo simulations subcritical neutron multiplication measurements involving research reactors for validation of neutron multi- Protocol plication inference techniques Monte Carlo codes and associated nuclear data. There has been increased at- tention and expanded efforts related to subcritical measurements and analyses and this work provides yet another data set at known reactivity states that can be used in the validation of state-of-the-art Monte Carlo computer simulation tools. The diverse mass spatial spectral subcritical measurement configurations have been analyzed to produce parameters of interest such as singles rates doubles rates and leakage multiplication. MCNP was used to simulate the experiment and the resulting simulated data has been compared to the measured results. Comparison of the simulated and measured observables singles rates doubles rates and leakage multiplication show good agreement. This work builds upon the previous years of collaborative sub- critical experiments and outlines a protocol for future subcritical neutron
