SUMMARY OF REACTOR DESIGN INFORMATION FROM THREE YEARS' OPERATION OF A SMALL PWR

Technical Report · Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1960

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4122707· OSTI ID:4122707

Gallagher, J G

Reactor design information obtained from 3 years' operation of a small pressurized-water reactor, the SM-1 (formerly APPR-l), is presented and discussed. The SM-1 reactor, designed to produce 10 Mw(t) power, employs fully enriched uranium fuel in the form of UO/sub 2/ dispersed in stainless-steel fuel plates. The reactor is cooled by water at 1200 psia and mean temperature of 44) deg F. Core-physics measurements were performed of temperature coefficient, pressure coefficient, rod calibration, stuck rod position, and transient xenon as a function of core burn-out. Core burn-out characteristics were compared with few- group calculations, and reasonable agreement was obtained. Thermal-heat-balance data were obtained on the reactor core. The temperature pattern in the nominal and hot channels under operating conditions was calculated. These calculations indicated that certain of the fuel channels operated in the nucleate boiling regime. Examination of one of the fuel channels suspected of nucleate boiling indicated no adverse effects. The system response to load perturbations and during pump coast-down was measured utilizing plant instrumentation. This response was compared with analytical predictions using a lumped kinetic model, and reasonable agreement was found. Both neutron and gamma traverses were made through the primary shield during reactor operation. Gamma traverses were also made through the primary shield as a function of time after reactor shutdown. Conventional shielding calculational methods are found to give agreement with experiment sufficient for design purposes. An absolute ionization chamber was employed to measure N/sup 16/ activity in the reactor coolant. These measurements were compared with N/sup 16/ calculated from the (n,p) reaction on O/ sup 16/. (auth)

• Research Organization: Alco Products, Inc., Schenectady, NY (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AT(30-3)-326
• NSA Number: NSA-15-001044
• OSTI ID: 4122707
• Report Number(s): APAE-Memo-273
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-61
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

REACTOR TECHNOLOGY
ANALOG SYSTEMS
APPR-1
BOILING
BURNOUT
COOLANT LOOPS
DISPERSIONS
ENRICHMENT
FUEL ELEMENTS
GAMMA RADIATION
GROUP THEORY
HEAT TRANSFER
IONIZATION CHAMBERS
MEASURED VALUES
NEUTRONS
NITROGEN 16
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
OXYGEN 16
PERTURBATION THEORY
PLATES
PRESSURE
PUMPS
PWR
RADIOACTIVITY
REACTIVITY
REACTOR CORE
REACTORS
SHIELDING
SHUTDOWN
SIMULATORS
SM-1
STAINLESS STEELS
TEMPERATURE
URANIUM
URANIUM DIOXIDE
WATER COOLANT
XENON