Massimo Salvatores: integral experiments and their use for the validation of nuclear data and the neutronic design of advanced nuclear systems

Abstract

Among the many domains of reactor physics on which Massimo Salvatores gave his considerable contributions, he was particularly passionate about integral experiments. In this paper, we make a review of selected experimental campaigns among the numerous ones he has promoted, conceived, designed, directed, or analyzed. They have been regrouped in a temporal sequence corresponding to the different periods of Massimo's career, which exceeded 50 years. When possible, for each of the experiments we provide a brief description, the goal for which it was conceived and carried out, and the practical impact on validation and design improvement. Finally, the conclusions offer thoughts and suggestions for the future of the integral experiments and a possible way of honoring the invaluable legacy that Massimo Salvatores has left to us.

Assessment of Nuclear Data Needs for Advanced Reactor Demonstrations: Application to the Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment (MCRE)

“…However, integral experiments of the separated effect type can be even more effective. To this end, irradiation experiments like the proposed MANTRA-2 (Measurements of Actinide Neutron Transmutation Rates at ATR) [11] could be used. The MANTRA-2 experiment is an irradiation in the Advance Test Reactor (ATR) reactor that will gather information for the capture cross section in the fast spectrum for the irradiated materials derived by the transmutation rate of the irradiated sample.…”

“…Hopefully, this will result in more reliable values with a lower uncertainty attached to this reaction. In parallel, it would be possible to perform useful integral experiments similar to what has been proposed for the MASSIMO (Measurement in Adapted Spectra of Spectral Indices and Material Oscillation) experimental campaign [11]. In this case a sample of chloride salt can be irradiated for a sufficient time (likely, few days) so that the daughter resulting from the 35 Cl (n,p) reaction 35 S (half-life of 87.4 days) has enough activity in terms of decays that can be measured by either an ionization chamber or a scintillator, and in turn compared with the calculated corresponding values.…”