THE DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE OF THE RESEARCH REACTOR FUEL COUNTER

Year
1996
Author(s)
M. Abhold - Los Alamos National Laboratory
Howard Menlove - Los Alamos National Laboratory
S.-T. Hsue - Los Alamos National Laboratory
G. Walton - Los Alamos National Laboratory
S. Holt - Westinghouse Savannah River Site
Abstract
This paper describes the design features, hardware specifications, and performance characteristics of the Reseravh Reactor Fuel Counter (RRFC) System. The system is an active mode neutron coincidence counter intended to assay material test reactor fuel assemblies under water. The RRFC contains 12 3He tubes, each with its own preamplifier, and a single ion chamber. The neutron counting electronics are based on the Los Alamos Portable Shift Register (PSR) and the gamma readout is a manual-range pico-ammeter of Los Alarnos design. The RRFC is connected to the surface by a 20-m-long cable bundle. The PSR is controlled by a portable IBM computer running a modified version of the Los Alamos neutron coincidence counting code also called RRFC. There is a manual that describes the RRFC software.