Quantity of non condensing gases (Such as hydrogen and oxygen) produced from the Irradiation of boric acid solutions in a research reactor

Several pipeline rupture accidents as a result of the detonation of a hydrogen-oxygen mixture accumulated due to radiolysis have been reported. However, non-condensing gases (such as oxygen and hydrogen molecules) are usually not detected in cooling systems of pressurized water reactors (PWRs) under high temperature, or research reactors even under room temperature irradiation conditions. In the meantime, it was observed that the presence of certain amounts of boric acid, which is known as a water soluble thermal neutron absorber, produces an evolution of gases in significant quantity in the reactor at room temperature. Nuclear reactions of neutron absorbers such as B-10 or Li-6 in solid materials with thermal neutrons have been widely studied, and the applications are quite broad. Nevertheless, the irradiation of water samples containing neutron absorbers has not been published except for theoretical calculations using computer codes or a paper reporting experimental data obtained at high temperatures, written by B. Pas tina et al. To study the radiolysis of the cooling water and calculate the amount of gases that could have been produced in this manner, we irradiated several water samples containing natural, 10B-enriched, and mixed boric acid in the ranges of 0 to 2000 μg/m L for the function of 10B concentration