CORTEX experiments, Part III: Experimental determination of the zero power transfer function of AKR-2 with reliable uncertainties

Abstract

The transfer function is an important characteristic quantity of a nuclear reactor, since it contains the kinetic parameters. It expresses the response of a nuclear reactor to a disturbance of a certain frequency. If it is determined experimentally, it can be used to draw conclusions about the kinetic parameters. This article presents results of measurements of the zero power transfer function of the AKR-2 reactor at TU Dresden together with new data analysis methods. These measurements are compared to the theoretical zero power transfer function with kinetic parameters obtained via Monte Carlo simulations with MCNP and Serpent. To this end, advanced data analysis techniques based on a bootstrapping algorithms are employed. These techniques suppress the signal outside multiples of the fundamental frequency and additionally allow to obtain the full probability distribution of a peak in the frequency domain. This allowed for a reliable estimation of the mean value and uncertainty estimates of measured data of the zero power transfer function and the quantification of deviations between the experiments and the computations. It also made it possible to determine the phase of the zero power transfer function of AKR-2 for the first time. The experiments and computations are in agreement within the estimated uncertainties.