HEAVY WATER MODERATED POWER REACTORS. Progress Report, January 1961
At the end of January 1961, construction of the Heavy Water Components Test Reactor (HWCTR) was 50% complete. Installation of process equipment in the reactor building was started. Measurements were made in an exponential facility of the reactivity effects of D/sub 2/O coolant voids in a fuel assembly comprising four concentric tubes of natural uranium metal. The results support previous conclusions to the effect that a boiling D/sub 2/O reactor fueled with such assemblies would not be stable. Further buckling data on lattices of uranium oxide rods in D/sub 2/O were obtained from critical substitution experiments. Two experimental assemblies that contained short Zircaloyclad tabes of swaged uranium oxide appsrently failed during irradiation in a Savannah River reactor and were discharged. Studies directed toward identification of the causes and mechanism of failure are in progress. Measurements were made of the hydrodynamic stability of boiling water flow inside an electrically heated tube to determine the amount of upstream orificing that would be required to ensure flow stability in the fuel assemblies of a boiling D/sub 2/O reactor. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- Du Pont de Nemours (E.I.) & Co. Atomic Energy Div., Wilmington, Del.
- NSA Number:
- NSA-15-017831
- OSTI ID:
- 4013890
- Report Number(s):
- DP-585
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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