Importance of Plutonium Turnings in Criticality Safety

Conference · Sun Jun 12 04:00:00 EDT 2016

OSTI ID:1234491

Wysong, Andrew Russell ^[1]; Weaver, Chelsea L. ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

In criticality safety, turnings are a concern due to the fact that they leave interstitial space in which a moderator can ingress and reduce the critical mass for a fissile material. As turnings are produced when a Plutonium (Pu) items are machined, they are commonly encountered in facilities that process Pu. The intent of this paper is to establish minimum subcritical mass data points for Pu turnings based on the minimum density achievable as measured in a turnings experiment performed at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Further discussion will cover the implications of these results with concern to criticality safety during normal operations and during a glovebox fire scenario.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1234491
• Report Number(s): LA-UR--16-20058
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
Glovebox Fire Scenario
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
Plutonium (Pu)