Review of New Integral Determinations of Decay Heat

摘要

Over a decade ago, concern over possible serious consequences of a loss-of-coolant accident in a commercial light-water reactor prompted support in several countries of several experiments designed specifically to measure the decay heat of beta-ray and gamma-ray emanations from fission products for thermal reactors. In 1979, a new standard for use in computing decay heat in real reactor environs (for example, for regulatory requirements) was approved by the American Nuclear Society. Since then there have been additional experimental measurements, in particular for fission-induced by fast neutrons. In addition, the need for decay-heat data has been extended well beyond the time regime of a loss-of-coolant accident. The efficacy of the 1979 ANS standard has been a subject of study with generally positive results. However, a specific problem, namely, the consequences for decay heat of fission-product neutron capture merits further experimental study. (ERA citation 12:047466)