Survey of the Static Nuclear Characteristics of Small One-Region Slurry Reactors: Part II

Technical Report · Wed Nov 26 04:00:00 EST 1958

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4298073· OSTI ID:4298073

Prince, B. E. ^[1]

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1. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

The critical U²³⁵-to-thorium ratios in single-region slurry reactors were calculated for various ratios of H₂O to D₂O in the moderator. Reactors studied had diameters between 3.5 and 5.5 ft (hare sphere diameters), temperatures of 280°C, and slurry concentrations between 50 and 900 g thorium/liter. It was found that the addition of small amounts of H₂O to D₂O (< about 20%) causes the critical mass ratio to become smaller and the minimum ratio for a given reactor size to occur at higher thorium concentrations. For example, in a 4.5 ft reactor the minimum ratio was 0.13 g U²³⁵/g Th at the conditions of 150 g thorium/liter and 99.8% D₂O in the moderator. If the moderator was 30% H₂O, the minimum ratio was 0.04 g U²³⁵/g Th at the concentration of 500 g thorium/liter.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP); US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• NSA Number: NSA-13-005122
• OSTI ID: 4298073
• Report Number(s): CF-58-11-98
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
CAPTURE
CONFIGURATION
CRITICALITY
Criticality
DENSITY
Density
ENRICHMENT
EQUATIONS
Enrichment
FUEL SLURRIES
Fuel Slurries
HEAVY WATER
HEAVY WATER MODERATOR
Heavy Water
IMPURITIES
MASS
MODERATORS
Moderation
NUMERICALS
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
REACTIVITY
REACTOR CORE
REACTORS
SLOWDOWN
SPHERES
Safety
Slurry
TEMPERATURE
THERMAL UTILIZATION
THORIUM
Thorium
URANIUM 235
Uranium
VARIATIONS
VOLUME
WATER
WATER MODERATOR