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A New Era of Nuclear Criticality Experiments: The First 10 Years of Planet 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); New Mexico State Univ., Las Cruces, NM (United States)
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Planet is a vertical-lift assembly machine currently located at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) at the Nevada National Security Site. In the past, Planet resided at Technical Area-18 in Los Alamos, New Mexico, as part of the Los Alamos Critical Experiments Facility (LACEF). Following the de-inventorying of LACEF, the Planet assembly was relocated to NCERC in 2008 and became fully operational in June of 2011. The Class Foils experiment, which involves stacking highly enriched uranium foils to obtain a critical configuration, was the first critical experiment performed on Planet. As a major component of the Nuclear Criticality Safety Class taught for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Criticality Safety Program, the Class Foils experiment allows personnel from all over the DOE complex to handle nuclear material and to complete the approach to critical safely and successfully. This paper describes the Planet vertical assembly and recent engineering upgrade and a selection of the experiments that have been performed on Planet since its transition to NCERC 10 years ago.
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:
1900398
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

References (7)

End of an Era for the Los Alamos Critical Experiments Facility: History of critical assemblies and experiments (1946–2004) journal November 2006
ENDF/B-VIII.0: The 8 th Major Release of the Nuclear Reaction Data Library with CIELO-project Cross Sections, New Standards and Thermal Scattering Data journal February 2018
A New Era of Nuclear Criticality Experiments: The First 10 Years of Radiation Test Object Operations at NCERC journal October 2021
Critical Experiments with Highly Enriched Uranium and Matrix Elements (Si, Mg, Al, Gd, and Fe) journal July 2004
Criticality of a 237 Np Sphere journal January 2008
Criticality of Neptunium-237 and Its Possible Utilization in Nuclear Reactors journal November 1979
Advanced Moderator Material Handbook report September 2020

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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
National Criticality Experiments Research Center
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
Planet