SPERT PROJECT QUARTERLY TECHNICAL REPORT, JANUARY-MARCH 1963
Additional data from the 3.2-msec-period destructive test were analyzed. Recovery and cleanup operations in the Spert I area were completed. Each of the 270 highly enriched, aluminum-clad fuel plates in the core was found to have experienced melting to some degree. The available data on the nature of the pressure pulse and on the condition of the core fuel plates at the time of the pulse are consistent with the hypothesis that the observed destructive effects were produced by a self-propagating steam explosion resulting from the dispersal of molten fuel plates into the water throughout the core. A series of tests was initiated to determine the response of the Spert IV plate-type core to step- inputs of reactivity at ambient temperature, for various initial system conditions of hydrostatic head above the core, and forced coolant circulation rate. Power excursion tests with initial reactor periods in the range from 1 sec to 8.5 msec were performed with an 18-ft hydrostatic head above the core and no forced coolant circulation. Tests with periods of 20, 12, and 8.5 msec were also performed with a 2-ft head. No significant change was observed in the peak power, power burst shape, energy release, or transient pressure behavior as a result of the head change. The fuel plate surface temperatures were slightly higher for the 18-ft head tests. Tests with periods in the range from 500 to 10 msec were performed with a forced coolant flow rate through the core of 5000 gpm (12 ft/sec) with the 18-ft hydrostatic head. For tests with periods longer than about 100 msec, the addition of forced flow tends to eliminate the initial power peak and to increase the equilibrium power level. For shorter-period tests, the initial power peak is increased slightly when flow is added, but the effect decreases as the period is shortened. A series of damped secondary power bursts is observed in the short-period tests with flow. Fuel plate surface temperatures are reduced by the addition of flow for long-period tests, but for tests with periods shorter than about 30 msec, the available 12 ft/sec flow velocity had little effect on the temperatures. Four-group, one-dimensional diffusion theory calculations were performed to provide preliminary information pertinent to the selection of specifications for low-enrichment, oxide fuel rods to be used in planned future test programs in Spert III and Spert IV. Data from a series of high-power pile-oscillator experiments previously conducted in Spert I with the P- 18/19 core at a mean power level of 400 kw and a bulk-water temperature of 66 deg C were processed to extract the phase and amplitude of the over-all frequency response of the system. The departure of the measured high-power transfer function from the theoretical low-power transfer function is significant only for frequencies below about 1 cps. Computational procedures were developed to calculate the feedback transfer function directly from the measured step- transient power response of the reactor. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- Phillips Petroleum Co. Atomic Energy Div., Idaho Falls, Idaho
- DOE Contract Number:
- AT(10-1)-205
- NSA Number:
- NSA-17-029713
- OSTI ID:
- 4701451
- Report Number(s):
- IDO-16893
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-63
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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