Conceptual Phase Neutronic and Thermal Analyses for the LEU Conversion of the Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT)

Journal Article · Fri Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2016 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society

OSTI ID:23042862

Connaway, Heather M.; Kontogeorgakos, Dimitrios C.; Papadias, Dionissios; Wright, Arthur E. ^[1]

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1. Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Ave., Argonne IL, 60439 (United States)

The Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT) is an experimental reactor designed for transient testing of nuclear reactor fuels and other materials. TREAT is located at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). It was operated from 1959 until 1994, when it was placed on nonoperational standby. Preparations for the restart of TREAT are now underway. Simultaneously, work is being performed to support the conversion of TREAT from its current high enriched uranium (HEU) fuel to low enriched uranium (LEU, defined as uranium with less than 20% {sup 235}U) fuel, under the support of the Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Material Management and Minimization (M{sup 3}) reactor conversion program. Following the pre-conceptual phase of the TREAT conversion project (which included assessments of conversion feasibility, including LEU fuel element fabrication feasibility), conceptual phase work was performed to evaluate potential LEU fuel element designs for TREAT. Simultaneously, activities including scale-up development work for fuel fabrication and mock-up element production were performed by the INL Fuel Engineering and Design (FED) team. Utilizing the lessons learned in the analysis and fabrication work, an LEU conceptual design description was collaboratively established and evaluated in detail. A summary of this work and corresponding example results are presented here. (authors)

• OSTI ID: 23042862
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society Vol. 115; ISSN 0003-018X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
FUEL ELEMENTS
HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM
MINIMIZATION
NUCLEAR FUELS
REACTOR DESIGN
TESTING
THERMAL ANALYSIS
TRANSIENTS
TREAT REACTOR
URANIUM 235