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A New Era of Nuclear Criticality Experiments: The First 10 Years of Comet Operations at NCERC

Journal Article · · Nuclear Science and Engineering
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  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Missouri Univ. of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Comet is a general-purpose, heavy-duty, vertical-lift assembly designed for flexibility in conducting a variety of critical experiments. It is currently located at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) in Nevada. In the past, Comet resided at Technical Area-18 in Los Alamos, New Mexico, as part of the Los Alamos Critical Experiments Facility (LACEF). The Comet assembly was relocated to NCERC in 2008 and became fully operational in June of 2011. The first critical experiment performed on Comet at NCERC was a verification of one of the previous configurations of the Zeus experiment series. Over the next 10 years, many additional experiments followed including other Zeus configurations as well as completely new designs. This paper discusses the Comet vertical-lift assembly, the transition from LACEF to NCERC, and a selection of experiments that have been performed on Comet during its first 10 years of operation at NCERC.

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)
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001
OSTI ID:
1900394
Journal Information:
Nuclear Science and Engineering, Journal Name: Nuclear Science and Engineering Journal Issue: sup1 Vol. 195; ISSN 0029-5639
Publisher:
Taylor & FrancisCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Figures / Tables (26)

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Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION
Benchmark Experiments
Critical Assembly Machine
Criticality Experiments
Integral Experiments
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
Reactivity: National Criticality Experiments Research Center