THE INTERACTIONS OF SUBCRITICAL REACTORS

Journal Article · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1964 · At. Energ. (USSR)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01131716· OSTI ID:4049140

Dubovskii, V G; Kamaev, A V; Vladykov, G M; Kuznetsov, F M; Nozik, V Z; Palamarchuk, Yu D; Popov, G A; Vavilov, V V

When determining the nuclear safety of systems containing fissionable materials, the interaction of all the components must be taken into consideration; however, this is often impossible to do in the case of subcritical systems. Approximations must therefore be used for estimating the safety margin of the interacting system. In order to facilitate the problem, an attempt was made to replace the given subcritical array consisting of materials possessing given nuclear properties and geometric parameters by a reactor that is equivalent to the first one with regard to the buckling, but has different nuclear properties; equations were obtained for determining the equivalent geometrical dimensions. The equations derived were experimentally verified on subcritical arrays containing cylinders and square parallelipipeds, made of stainless steel containers with a wallthickness of 1.5 to 2 mm and radii or sides of 30 cm, filled with an aqueous solution of 90%-enriched /sup 235/Uo/sub 2/(NO/sub 3/)sub Similar systems were also built with 6-liter capacity glass cylinders with 0.5-cm thick walls. Comparison of the experimental and theoretical values indicated that the latter cortain a suitable safety margin and therefore may be used for evaluating the safety of an interacting system; this was proved by recalculating the data of E. Woodcock and U. Paxton (Progr. Nucl. Energy Series Vol. 4, 213 (1961)) concerning a system of U spheres. (TTT)

• Research Organization: Originating Research Org. not identified
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
• DOE Contract Number: NONE
• NSA Number: NSA-18-019315
• OSTI ID: 4049140
• Journal Information: At. Energ. (USSR), Journal Name: At. Energ. (USSR) Vol. Vol: 16
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: Russian

Related Subjects

BUCKLING
CONFIGURATION
CRITICAL ASSEMBLIES
CYLINDERS
ENRICHMENT
EQUATIONS
FISSIONABLE MATERIALS
FUEL SOLUTIONS
GLASS
INTERACTIONS
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
REACTOR SAFETY
REACTOR TECHNOLOGY
REACTORS
SAFETY
SPHERES
STAINLESS STEELS
THICKNESS
URANIUM
URANIUM 235
URANYL NITRATES
VESSELS