METHOD FOR PRODUCING GAMMA-RAY SOURCE CORE Russian patent published in 2003 - IPC

FIELD: nuclear technology and power engineering; nuclear power reactors. SUBSTANCE: method is proposed to use capsules of irradiating assemblies of nuclear reactors to build up target radionuclides and to produce active cores of gamma-ray sources. Core that has cylindrical tube and cylindrical rod of diameter fitting inner diameter of tube is separately irradiated in reactor and upon irradiation they are placed together in common can. Capsule opened upon irradiation with cylindrical tube is proposed to be used as active core can to receive cylindrical rod extracted from other irradiated capsule whereupon capsule with combined components is encapsulated. Tube and rod are proposed to be made of same material such as metal cobalt; in order to enhance yield of gamma-quanta of produced active core cobalt surface in tube should amount to 0.8-0.9 of its surface in rod. In addition a number of separately activated tubes inserted one into other as well as separately irradiated fragments of mentioned components, such as bushings, rings, half- cylinders, and the like, are proposed to be used in core assembly process to produce source of high specific activity due to additional unlocking of material being irradiated. Capsules used for irradiating active core components are proposed to be made of material whose neutron capture sectional area is smaller than that of cobalt. EFFECT: enhanced total activity of source core, facilitated procedure of material irradiation, reduced material input. 6 cl, 3 dwg, 1 tbl