Development and Experimental Validation of a Calculation Scheme for Nuclear Heating Evaluation in the Core of the OSIRIS Material Testing Reactor

The control of the temperature in material samples irradiated in a material testing reactor requires the knowledge of the nuclear heating caused by the energy deposition by neutrons and photons interacting in the irradiation device structures. Thus, a neutron–photonic three-dimensional calculation scheme has been developed to evaluate the nuclear heating in experimental devices irradiated in the core of the OSIRIS MTR reactor (CEA/Saclay Center). The aim is to obtain a predictive tool for the nuclear heating estimation in irradiation devices. This calculation scheme is mainly based on the TRIPOLI-4 three-dimensional continuous-energy Monte Carlo transport code, developed by CEA (Saclay Center). An experimental validation has been carried out on the basis of nuclear heating measurements performed in the OSIRIS core. After an overview of the experimental devices irradiated in the OSIRIS reactor, we present the calculation scheme and the first results of the experimental validation.