THE PEBBLE BED REACTOR PROGRAM. Quarterly Progress Report for January 1, 1960 through March 31, 1960

Technical Report · Mon Oct 31 04:00:00 EST 1960

OSTI ID:4135720

Fission-product leakage into the PBR coolant stream is the most serious source of contamination. In order to have an indication of the activity level in the coolant primary loop, a master table was prepared based on the total release of all volatile fission products and their daughters which are volatile at or below 2500 deg F, normalized for 100Mw(th) output and 100 days operation. The system activity for a 125-Mw(e) PBR is also given. A diffusion separation cell is proposed which offers the possibility of cleaning up the helium coolant irrespective of the level of contamination. A two-group nuclear model and machine program for nuclear analysis of the plant are discussed. Work on fuelbed development has been limited to critical areas on which further information is needed in order to proceed with the PBR design. These areas are fuel handling, i.e., the problems of continuously refueling under load; ball flow through the bed; a study of gas binding, either caused by or resulting in core hot spots; a determination of core friction factor over a range of Reynolds numbers of interest in design; and the effect of thermal growth of the bed on fuelelement integrity. (See also NYO-9066.) (W.D.M.)

• Research Organization: Sanderson and Porter, New York
• NSA Number: NSA-14-026475
• OSTI ID: 4135720
• Report Number(s): NYO-9067
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

CLEANING
COMPUTERS
CONFIGURATION
CONTAMINATION
COOLANT LOOPS
DIFFUSION
FISSION PRODUCTS
FRICTION
FUELS
GAS COOLANT
GAS FLOW
GROUP THEORY
HELIUM
HIGH TEMPERATURE
LEAKS
MOTION
PBR
PEBBLE BED
PELLETS
POWER PLANTS
PROGRAMMING
RADIOACTIVITY
REACTOR TECHNOLOGY
REACTORS
REMOTE HANDLING
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SPHERES