Overview of Validation Experiments Focused on Silicon in LR-0

Abstract

Silicon dioxide is a common material in nature and is also often used in the nuclear industry (concrete, radioactive waste repositories in bedrocks), therefore, properly characterizing neutronic properties is very important for nuclear energy and criticality safety applications. The criticality worth was measured for several core arrangements containing silica sand both inside the core and/or as a reflector by measuring the moderator level. The core arrangements used sand as both lateral and central reflectors in different combinations. The results showed that the new thermal scattering law matrix for silicon dioxide available in ENDF/B-VIII.0 may have a problem for backward neutron scattering.