Reactor pulse repeatability studies at the annular core research reactor
- Applied Nuclear Technologies, Sandia National Laboratories, Mail Stop 1146, Post Office Box 5800, Albuquerque, NM 87185-1146 (United States)
- Nuclear Facility Operations, Sandia National Laboratories, Mail Stop 0614, Post Office Box 5800, Albuquerque, NM 87185-1146 (United States)
The Annular Core Research Reactor (ACRR) at Sandia National Laboratories is a water-moderated pool-type reactor designed for testing many types of objects in the pulse and steady-state mode of operations. Personnel at Sandia began working to improve the repeatability of pulse operations for experimenters in the facility. The ACRR has a unique UO{sub 2}-BeO fuel that makes the task of producing repeatable pulses difficult with the current operating procedure. The ACRR produces a significant quantity of photoneutrons through the {sup 9}Be({gamma}, n){sup 8}Be reaction in the fuel elements. The photoneutrons are the result of the gammas produced during fission and in fission product decay, so their production is very much dependent on the reactor power history and changes throughout the day/week of experiments in the facility. Because the photoneutrons interfere with the delayed-critical measurements required for accurate pulse reactivity prediction, a new operating procedure was created. The photoneutron effects at delayed critical are minimized when using the modified procedure. In addition, the pulse element removal time is standardized for all pulse operations with the modified procedure, and this produces less variation in reactivity removal times. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Society for Testing and Materials - ASTM International, 100 Barr Harbor Drive, PO Box C700, West Conshohocken, PA, 19428-2959 (United States); European Working Group on Reactor Dosimetry - EWGRD, SCK.CEN, Mol (Belgium)
- OSTI ID:
- 22086973
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US--13-ISRD-14-P1-05
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
ACPR REACTOR
BERYLLIUM 8
BERYLLIUM 9 TARGET
BERYLLIUM OXIDES
FISSION
FISSION PRODUCTS
FORECASTING
FUEL ELEMENTS
GAMMA RADIATION
NUCLEAR DECAY
PHOTONEUTRONS
POOL TYPE REACTORS
PULSES
REACTIVITY
REACTOR KINETICS
SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES
STEADY-STATE CONDITIONS
TESTING
URANIUM DIOXIDE