Neutronic Analysis of Pulse Core and Laser Module Coupled System for Nuclear Pumped Laser

Nuclear-pumped laser is produced by pumping laser active medium with kinetic energy of fission fragments. In this pumping process, the kinetic energy of fission fragments is transferred to laser active medium by collisions of fission fragments with laser active medium. The energy is converted to optical energy with the transition of energy levels of the laser active medium. Experimental and theoretical study on nuclear pumped laser has been performed in IPPE using a coupled reactor. The coupled reactor consists of a twin-core pulse reactor with highly enriched metallic uranium and a subcritical laser module with highly enriched metallic uranium. The purpose of study is to design a low enriched uranium coupled reactor for nuclear-pumped laser which consists of pulse reactors and a subcritical laser module. Neutronic calculations were performed for a coupled reactor with highly enriched metallic uranium and low enriched metallic uranium to show the possibility of low enriched uranium coupled reactor for nuclear pumped laser