OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS OF A URANIUM GRAPHITE SUBCRITICAL ASSEMBLY (thesis)
Technical Report
·
OSTI ID:4223086
The operating characteristics of the suberitical assembly under investigation agree quite well with the accepted theory. The 8.6 in. lattice is the optimum lattice, resulting in higher flux levels and the largest value of critical buckling. All experimental buckling determinations proved to be positive, which indicates that a full scale reactor could be constructed of the same configuration as either the 6 in., 8.5 in. or 12 in.lattice. There is no apparent measurable flux depression due to indium foil loading, even when foils are loaded unsymmetrically. Horizontal flux distributions are symmetrical in both the x and the y directions, and within the limitations imposed by statistics they agree well with the cosine distributions predicted by theory. The subcritical assembly could be operated satisfactorfly using the smaller (100 millicurie) external neutron source. However, the scattering of the experimental points obtained with this source is quite severe, and statistical deviations are very large. With the larger neutron source in place, flux levels are higher by a factor of five or more, with correspondingly smaller deviations and less scattering of experimertal points. The fast neutrons from the external source are not ertirely thermalized until they have penetrated approximately 30 in. into the assembly. This subcritical assembly, with the large external neutron source in place, can be used to great advantage as an instructional tool. Afthough the experimental results obtained were not extremely accurate, it is believed that the data can be reproduced with sufficient consistency and accuracy to correlate experimental results with classroom calcula-tions. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- Iowa State Coll., Ames
- NSA Number:
- NSA-13-019443
- OSTI ID:
- 4223086
- Report Number(s):
- NP-7760
- Country of Publication:
- Country unknown/Code not available
- Language:
- English
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