Irradiation Experiment Design Parameters for NBSR Fuel Conversion

Technical Report · Thu Jun 27 04:00:00 EDT 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1542276· OSTI ID:1542276

Diamond, David J. ^[1]; Kohut, P. ^[1]; Varuttamaseni, A. ^[1]

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1. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

It has been proposed to convert the National Institute of Standards and Technology research reactor, known as the NBSR, from highly-enriched uranium (HEU) fuel to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. The motivation to convert the NBSR to LEU fuel is to reduce the risk of proliferation of special nuclear material. This report is a compilation of relevant information from recent studies related to the proposed conversion using a metal alloy of LEU with 10 w/o molybdenum. The objective is to inform the design of irradiation experiments that are being planned. This report provides relevant nominal dimensions of the proposed LEU fuel element, and average and maximum power densities and fission densities. The latter profiles are given for different plates to show the variation throughout the core. A summary of the methodology to obtain these results is presented. Fuel element tolerance assumptions and hot channel factors used in the safety analysis are also given.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation (NA-20)
• DOE Contract Number: SC0012704
• OSTI ID: 1542276
• Report Number(s): BNL-211807-2019-INRE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
High-Enriched Uranium (HEU)
Low-enriched uranium (LEU)
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)