Investigation of Deuterium Cross Section Data by Integral Testing: ZED-2 Measurements of High-Enriched Uranium Fuel Substituted into a Natural Uranium Core

Abstract

ZED-2 measurements of an HEU fuel rod substituted into an NU rod lattice were analysed to determine their reactivity sensitivity to differences in neutron elastic scattering cross-sections of deuterium from different evaluated nuclear data libraries. The differences concern the angular probability distribution. This analysis shows that the existing ZED-2 HEU experiments are insufficiently sensitive to resolve the discrepancy between data libraries. Further analysis shows that the sensitivity to the angular probability distribution of deuterium is strongly correlated with fast neutron leakage, and it is recommended that further experiments to address this nuclear data issue be designed/evaluated to maximize this quantity.