Validation of a Monte Carlo Model of the Fork Detector

The investigation of experimental methods for safeguarding spent fuel elements is one of the research areas at the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK•CEN. A version of the so-called Fork Detector has been designed at SCK•CEN and is in use at the Belgian Nuclear Power Plant of Doel for burnup determination purposes. The Fork Detector relies on passive neutron and gamma measurements for the assessment of the burnup and safeguards verification activities. In order to better evaluate and understand the method and in view to extend its capabilities, an effort to model the Fork detector was made with the code MCNPX. A validation of the model was done in the past using spent fuel measurement data. This paper reports about the measurements carried out at the Laboratory for Nuclear Calibrations (LNK) of SCK•CEN with a 252Cf source calibrated according to ISO 8529 standards. The experimental data are presented and compared with simulations. In the simulations, not only was the detector modeled but also the measurement room was taken into account based on the available design information. The results of this comparison exercise are also presented in this paper.