An intense 2-day course on Experimental Reactor Physics was organized and carried out on 5-6 December 2024 at the Jožef Stefan Institute TRIGA research reactor for a group of M.Sc. students fromChalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden. The course is included in the educational initiative Tracks at Chalmers, and was carried out in a hybrid format: a group of 10 students was present at the JSI Reactor Centre in Ljubljana, while a group of 21 students followed the activities via remote connection from Gothenburg and interacted with the on-site group. Remote students also attended the sessions, as the JSI laboratory exercises were part of a Chalmers course offered in a hybrid format. The sessions were structured as a series of four exercises, during which fundamental quantities in Reactor Physics were measured, e.g. the temperature and void coefficients of reactivity, and the reactor behavior in particular ranges was observed and explained in detail. As a bonus activity, after successfully completing the exercises, the students had the opportunity to observe the reactor pulse operation in person.
The course allowed the students to experience experimental activities in a research reactor and directly observe phenomena typically covered at a theoretical level in nuclear engineering curricula. In addition, more detailed behavior linked to the specifics of the JSI TRIGA research reactor was observed and discussed.
