THE BEHAVIOUR OF URANIUM AND ALUMINUM IN THE NRU HEAVY WATER SYSTEM

Technical Report · Tue Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1963

OSTI ID:4150854

Rae, H K

The NRU reactor has operated for five years with hundred-gram quantities of uranium in the core releasing fission products to the water. This situation, while causing inconvenience and complicating maintenance work, has not created any serious operating problems. The studies of uranium and aluminum transport throughout the heavy water system that are summarized indicate that the controlling factors are the concentrations of ionic uranium and aluminum. These ionic concentrations are much lower than the total concentrations of these elements in the water, and they cannot be measured directly. The important processes affecting the gross transport of uranium or aluminum are dissolution of the source material to form the ionic species followed by sorption or crystallization on oxide surfaces throughout the system, both corrosion product films and oxide particles. It is believed that the same processes are important in high-temperature systems and can control corrosion product release, crud disposition on fuel sheaths, and the transport of activity. Thus, the studies in NRU may help to interpret the behavior of power reactor systems. (auth)

• Research Organization: Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., Chalk River, Ont.
• NSA Number: NSA-18-001291
• OSTI ID: 4150854
• Report Number(s): AECL-1840; CONF-243-5
• Country of Publication: Canada
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ALUMINUM
CORROSION
CRYSTALLIZATION
FISSION PRODUCTS
HEAVY WATER
IONS
MAINTENANCE
NRU
OXIDES
REACTOR TECHNOLOGY
RESEARCH REACTORS
SOLUTIONS
SURFACES
URANIUM
WATER