The study of physics and thermal characteristics for in-hospital neutron irradiator (IHNI)

The IHNI is designed for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) based on miniature neutron source reactor (MNSR). The reactor with thermal power 30 kW is an undermoderated reactor of pool-tank type, and UO2 as fuel, light water as coolant and moderator, and metallic beryllium as reflector. The fission heat produced by the reactor is removed by the natural convection.The paper gives the calculating results of critical mass and the worths of central control rod, auxiliary control rod, reactivity regulator and neutron beam equipments. The parameters at thermal and small thermal ports and at epithermal port were calculated by optimizing combination of kinds of material by MCNP code. The dynamic feature research was done by RELAP5 code when the reactivities of 3, 4.5 and 6 mK were inserted, respectively. The results show that the reactor power can be limited to safe level by itself owing to the Doppler effect of fuel element and moderator negative temperature effect when the 6 mK reactivity was inserted into the reactor.