• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.442-449
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• 2010

Recently, the neutron irradiation for large diameter silicon (Si)-ingots of more than 8" diameter is requested to satisfy the demand for the neutron transmutation doping silicon (NTD-Si). By increasing the Si-ingot diameter, the radial non-uniformity becomes larger due to the neutron attenuation effect, which results in a limit of the feasible diameter of the Si-ingot. The current evaluation method has a certain limit to precisely evaluate the radial uniformity of Si-ingot because the current evaluation method does not consider the effect of the Si-ingot diameter on the radial uniformity. The objective of this study is to propose a new evaluation method of radial uniformity by improving the conventional evaluation approach. To precisely predict the radial uniformity of a Si-ingot with large diameter, numerical verification is conducted through comparison with the measured data and introducing the new evaluation method. A new concept of a gradient is introduced as an alternative approach of radial uniformity evaluation instead of the radial resistivity gradient (RRG) interpretation. Using the new concept of gradient, the normalized reaction rate gradient (NRG) and the surface normalized reaction rate gradient (SNRG) are described. By introducing NRG, the radial uniformity can be evaluated with one certain standard regardless of the ingot diameter and irradiation condition. Furthermore, by introducing SNRG, the uniformity on the Si-ingot surface, which is ignored by RRG and NRG, can be evaluated successfully. Finally, the radial uniformity flattening methods are installed by the stainless steel thermal neutron filter and additional Si-pipe to reduce SNRG.