Moderator poison design and burn-up calculations at the SNS

The spallation neutron source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory was commissioned in April 2006. At the nominal operating power (1.4 MW), it will have thermal neutron fluxes approximately an order of magnitude greater than any existing pulsed spallation source. It thus brings a serious challenge to the lifetime of the moderator poison sheets. The SNS moderators are integrated with the inner reflector plug (IRP) at a cost of ∼$2 million a piece. A replacement of the inner reflector plug presents a significant drawback to the facility due to the activation and the operation cost. Although there are a lot of factors limiting the lifetime of the inner reflector plug, like radiation damage to the structural material and helium production of beryllium, the bottle-neck is the lifetime of the moderator poison sheets. Increasing the thickness of the poison sheet extends the lifetime but would sacrifice the neutronic performance of the moderators. A compromise is accepted at the current SNS target system which uses thick Gd poison sheets at a projected lifetime of 6 MW-years of operation. The calculations in this paper reveal that Cd may be a better poison material from the perspective of lifetime and neutronic performance. In replacing Gd, the inner reflector plug could reach a lifetime of 8 MW-years with ∼5% higher peak neutron fluxes at almost no loss of energy resolution.