Heterogeneous Reactivity Effects in Medium- and High-Enriched Uranium Metal-Water Systems

Conference · Sun Sep 07 00:00:00 EDT 1997

OSTI ID:505735

Lichtenwalter, Jerry J. ^[1]

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1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

The effect of heterogeneity on reactivity of low-, medium-, and high-enriched, water-moderated uranium metal systems has been examined for various hydrogen-to-fissile (H/X) ratios using the CSAS1X sequence in SCALE and MCNP. For the calculations, an infinite array of close-packed unit cells was modeled which consisted of centered uranium metal spheres surrounded by water. The enrichments used correspond to the average enrichments of fragmented fuel plates in three proposed waste shipments from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The analysis performed to obtain peak reactivity for each enrichment as a function of particle size and H/X ratio led to the development of the topic discussed in this paper.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-96OR22464
• OSTI ID: 505735
• Report Number(s): CONF-970926-10; ON: DE97006433; TRN: 97:013187
• Resource Relation: Conference: American Nuclear Society (ANS) Topical Meeting on Criticality Safety Challenges in the Next Decade, Analysis for Safe Operations, Chelan, WA (United States), 7-11 Sep 1997; Other Information: PBD: 1997
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
ENRICHED URANIUM
REACTIVITY
S CODES
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
FUEL PLATES
HYDROGEN
PARTICLE SIZE
SPHERES
WATER
HETEROGENEOUS EFFECTS
MULTIPLICATION FACTORS
CALCULATION METHODS
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
Hydrogen-to-Fissile (H/X) Ratios
CSAS1X
SCALE
Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP)
Spherical Fuel Pellets
Dancoff Correction
Close-Packed Unit Cells
Fuel Plates