Calibration of spent fuel measurement assembly

•Calibration of research reactor spent fuel measurement assembly.•On-site prepared 110mAg isotope used for the measurement.•Calculated self-shielding factor for the IRT-2M fuel.•Applicable to other research reactor fuel geometries.

The LVR-15 research reactor (Czech Republic) had been converted from the highly enriched IRT-2M to the low enriched IRT-4M fuel. For the possibility of the independent pre-transport evaluation of IRT-2M burnup, a spectrometric system was developed. This spectrometric system consists of the fuel holder, the collimator and the portable Canberra Big MAC HPGe (High Purity Germanium) detector. In order to have well reproducible and reliable experimental data for modeling of the measurement system, calibration with the 110mAg isotope with known activity was performed. This isotope was chosen for having energies similar to isotopes measured in fuel assemblies. The 110mAg isotope was prepared by irradiating of the silver foil in LVR-15 research reactor; its activity was evaluated in the LVR-15׳s spectrometric laboratory. From the measured data, an efficiency curve of the spectrometric system has been determined. The experimental data were compared to the calculation results with the MCNPX model of the spectrometric system.