REACTOR DOSIMETRY STUDY OF THE RHODE ISLAND NUCLEAR SCIENCE CENTER.
Conference
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OSTI ID:15020470
The Rhode Island Nuclear Science Center (RINSC), located on the Narragansett Bay Campus of the University of Rhode Island, is a state-owned and US NRC-licensed nuclear facility constructed for educational and industrial applications. The main building of RINSC houses a two-megawatt (2 MW) thermal power critical reactor immersed in demineralized water within a shielded tank. As its original design in 1958 by the Rhode Island Atomic Energy Commission focused on the teaching and research use of the facility, only a minimum of 3.85 kg fissile uranium-235 was maintained in the fuel elements to allow the reactor to reach a critical state. In 1986 when RINSC was temporarily shutdown to start US DOE-directed core conversion project for national security reasons, all the U-Al based Highly-Enriched Uranium (HEU, 93% uranium-235 in the total uranium) fuel elements were replaced by the newly developed U{sub 3}Si{sub 2}-Al based Low Enriched Uranium (LEU, {le}20% uranium-235 in the total uranium) elements. The reactor first went critical after the core conversion was achieved in 1993, and feasibility study on the core upgrade to accommodate Boron Neutron-Captured Therapy (BNCT) was completed in 2000 [3]. The 2-MW critical reactor at RINSC which includes six beam tubes, a thermal column, a gamma-ray experimental station and two pneumatic tubes has been extensive utilized as neutron-and-photon dual source for nuclear-specific research in areas of material science, fundamental physics, biochemistry, and radiation therapy. After the core conversion along with several major system upgrade (e.g. a new 3-MW cooling tower, a large secondary piping system, a set of digitized power-level instrument), the reactor has become more compact and thus more effective to generate high beam flux in both the in-core and ex-core regions for advance research. If not limited by the manpower and operating budget in recent years, the RINSC built ''in concrete'' structure and control systems should have been systematically upgraded to a 5 Mw power facility to further enhance its experimental capability while still maintaining its safe margin as designed.
- Research Organization:
- BROOKHAVEN NATTIONAL LABORATORY
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE/SC
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-98CH10886
- OSTI ID:
- 15020470
- Report Number(s):
- BNL--73996-2005-CP; KB0301041
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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