Hazards Summary Report for the Battelle Plastic Reactor Facility

Technical Report · Fri Jan 20 00:00:00 EST 1961

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4080086· OSTI ID:4080086

Dingee, David A. ^[1]; Chastain, Jr., Joel W. ^[1]

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1. Battelle Memorial Inst., Columbus, OH (United States)

Experiments using a plastic-moderated assembly as a radiation source are described, and the hazards attendant to these experiments are evaluated. The critical assembly, designated Battelle's Plastic Reactor Facility, is constructed in the form of a cube. A portion of the plastic and fuel will be removed from the center of this reactor to provide a radiation environment for exposing fission-chamber devices. This central void region will approximate a flux trap in which a high neutron-to-gamma ratio is expected. The fuel-element assemblies are composed of strips of aluminum and Teflon-coated uranium sandwiched with plastic and encased in aluminum boxes. One portion of the core is on a movable table, while the other part is on a fixed table. The core is assembled remotely by driving the movable table against the fixed table. Primary control and safety of the assembly are achieved by inserting or withdrawing regulating and safety elements and by increasing or decreasing the distance between the two core halves. For safety, the maximum normal rate of reactivity addition has been limited to 0.04% Δ k/k per sec for control-element withdrawal and table closure. The system is interlocked so that only one control element can be withdrawn at a time and so that the movable table and elements cannot be moved simultaneously. In addition, criticality cannot be reached by only moving the tables together. No experiments with the Plastic Reactor Facility are planned since it will serve only as a source of radiation operating at a constant power level. Consequently, the hazards of a nuclear excursion are minimized. However, the safety aspects of the operations and possible power excursions have been analyzed. The analysis indicates that these operations present no significant hazard to the public persons or operating staff.

• Research Organization: Battelle Memorial Inst., Columbus, OH (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP); US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
• NSA Number: NSA-15-012623
• OSTI ID: 4080086
• Report Number(s): BMI-ACRS-659
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-61
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
ACCIDENTS
ALUMINUM
BPRF
CONFIGURATION
CONTROL ELEMENTS
CRITICAL ASSEMBLIES
CRITICALITY
FISSION CHAMBERS
FUEL CANS
FUEL ELEMENTS
FUELS
GAMMA RADIATION
MODERATORS
NEUTRON FLUX
NEUTRONS
ORGANIC FLUORINE COMPOUNDS
PLATES
POLYMERS
RADIATION SOURCES
REACTIVITY
REACTOR CORE
REACTORS
RESEARCH REACTORS
SAFETY
TRANSPORT
TRAPS
URANIUM
ZONES
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
Criticality
Accidents
Plastic Reactor Facility
Moderators
Neutron Flux
Gamma Radiation
Teflon-Coated Uranium