Description and status of the NESTOR Dosimetry Improvement Programme (NESDIP)

The NESTOR Dosimetry Improvement Programme (NESDIP) comprises a series of experiments in which, in conditions broadly representative of current light water reactor designs, some outstanding problems of pressure vessel (PV) dosimetry and monitoring can be explored. The objectives of the programme are as follows: (1) to provide benchmark quality measurements of neutron and gamma-ray fields against which calculational methods for predicting damage to PV and reactor internals can be validated. In addition provision will be made for the further development or refinement of necessary dosimetry measurement techniques; (2) to ensure that the programme complements, and where necessary extends, the scope of other international programmes in the PV dosimetry area - for example the USNRC/SDIP and the VENUS programmes; (3) to incorporate, as part of this complementary role, the requirements of external calculational and experimental groups in the development of the NESDIP. (This requirement has to conform to the overall level of time and resources available to the programme); and (4) to provide reports to calculational and experimental data derived as part of the programme in an available form, in a manner similar to those provided as part of the USNRC/SDIP