Commission of the European Communities - Directorate General Joint Research Centre

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Acronym
JRC-IRMM
Country
European Union

At the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) in Geel, Belgium, the Joint Research Centre hosts two key European laboratories for neutron-induced nuclear reaction measurements and an important facility for the production and characterization of nuclear and radioactive targets. These laboratories are operated by the Unit of Standards for Nuclear Safety, Security and Safeguards (SN3S) and are supported as a direct action of the EURATOM program.

Neutron measurements are performed at two facilities: The Geel Electron Linear Accelerator GELINA is a white pulsed neutron source time-of-flight facility for neutrons with energies from 1 meV to 20 MeV. Combining the best time resolution with flight paths ranging from 10 to 400 m an unsurpassed neutron energy resolution is obtained. At the 7 MV Van de Graaff (VdG) facility of IRMM quasi mono-energetic beams of neutrons are produced in the energy range from 10 keV to 24 MeV using binary reactions of protons and deuterons with lithium, deuterium or tritium targets. JRC-IRMM has dedicated equipment and expertise in the domain of measurements of neutron-induced reactions that cover the total, fission, capture and inelastic scattering processes of interest to this proposal.

Relevant experience

JRC-IRMM is an active participant to European projects with a nuclear data component (ANDES, ERINDA, EUFRAT, CANDIDE, NUDAME, EFNUDAT, EUROTRANS) and has ample experience with coordination of projects, work packages and tasks in these projects. JRC-IRMM actively collaborates in nuclear data projects operated by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the OECD and the Nuclear Data Section of the IAEA and has bilateral collaboration agreements with institutes in Europe, DOE, JAEA and AECL.

Scientific and technical personnel involved

  • Dr. ir. Arjan Plompen: Leader of the JRC action "Nuclear data for waste minimization and innovative reactor developments". He is coordinator of the NEA/OECD High Priority Request List for Nuclear Data and participated in the NEA/OECD subgroup 26 on "Uncertainty and Target Accuracy Assessment for Innovative Systems Using Recent Covariance Data Evaluations". He was also coordinator of the the activities of ANDES WP1. Previously he coordinated work packages for the EUROTRANS, EFNUDAT and CANDIDE EC projects. He is a member of the JEFF Scientific Coordination Group and an observer at the IAEA International Nuclear Data Committee. He will coordinate DMC consisting of the project oriented WP8 to WP12 and will contribute to WP1, WP2 and WP13.
  • Prof. dr. ir. Wim Mondelaers: Nuclear engineer with a PhD. in Particle Accelerator Physics. He is professor at the Gent University. He is Head of Unit of the SN3S Unit. He is Co-ordinator of EUFRAT and Transnational Access Activities Co-ordinator of the ERINDA project and will coordinate WP5 (Transnational access) and WP6 (scientific visitors) and contribute to WP1 and WP2.
  • Dr. Peter Schillebeeckx: Leader of the resonance range measurements and data analysis at the GELINA facility. His scientific interests include capture and total cross section measurements and the use of neutron resonance analysis for non-intrusive elemental composition determinations. He and his team have actively explored the limits of accuracy in resonance range and have ample experience in resonance range nuclear data evaluation. He will coordinate WP10 on evaluated nuclear data for MYRRHA reactor safety analysis and will organise the resonance analysis schools of the project.
  • M.Sc. Goedele Sibbens: Responsible for the Target Preparation Group at IRMM, which has dedicated laboratories for the production and characterization of actinide and stable targets for nuclear measurements. Recent achievements include the production and characterization of U-233, U-235, U- 238, Pu-240, Pu-242 thin deposits and Li-6, Li-7, B-10 and tristearin thin layers for nuclear measurements of the EC projects ANDES, ERINDA, EUFRAT and METROFISSION. She participates in WP3 for production and characterization of nuclear targets and the coordination thereof.
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