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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
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Candidates for leadership provide statements: ANS Board of Directors
With the annual ANS election right around the corner, American Nuclear Society members will be going to the polls to vote for a vice president/president-elect, treasurer, and members-at-large for the Board of Directors. In January, Nuclear News published statements from candidates for vice president/president-elect and treasurer. This month, we are featuring statements from each nominee for the Board of Directors.
G. S. Brunson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 10 | Number 1 | January 1971 | Pages 33-43
Technical Paper and Note | Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT71-A30945
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
As part of the defective-cladding detection program at Experimental Breeder Reactor II, the Reactor Cover Gas Monitor was installed to provide on-line monitoring for noble gas fission products in the argon cover gas which fills the reactor vessel above the sodium coolant. With a 2- × 2-in. sodium iodide scintillator as the detector, it has been possible to identify 133Xe, 85mKr, and 135Xe, which are always present in low concentrations due to an irreducible background fission source in the reactor. This apparently straightforward monitoring project turned out to be much complicated by the presence of relatively large concentrations of 23Ne [from the reaction 23Na(n, p)23Ne on the sodium coolant]. The 23Ne diffuses from the sodium to the cover gas at a rate which is exceedingly sensitive to the bulk sodium temperature. Small temperature changes can produce large changes in the 23Ne concentration. The Compton continuum from 23Ne is counted in the channels adjusted for the fission product gases, causing large and alarming surges in the indicated concentrations. While this effect is not yet understood, it has been alleviated by “aging” the sample stream in a delay line to permit additional decay of the 38-sec 23Ne. After the delay line was installed, it was possible to monitor 135Xe very effectively; 133Xe and 85mKr still could not be monitored clearly because of the interference from the Compton continua of higher energy gamma lines, principally that of 135Xe.
