SUMMARY REPORT ON A HIGH-TEMPERATURE BERYLLIUM-OXIDE CRITICAL EXPERIMENT

Technical Report · Tue Mar 21 04:00:00 EST 1961

OSTI ID:4742956

Finke, R; Goldberg, E; Reynolds, H; Grammens, G

An experimental verification of multigroup calculations of critical dimensions as a function of temperature of a beryllium -oxide -moderated, enriched-uranium-fueled assembly was made using Hot Box, a high-temperature critical facility. A decrease in buckiing of 2.5% was required to compensate for an increase in core temperature from 90 to 955 deg F for a bare equivalent core with an effective BeO density of 2.86 g/cm/sup 3/ and a gross BeO/U/sup 235/ molar ratio of about 550 to 1. The reactivity change was within 5% of the change predicted by the Zoom multigroup, multiregion, one-dimensional diffusion code for an equivalent core configuration. An overall average temperature coefficient of reactivity of - 48/100 deg F was measured for the temperature range studied, and a nuclear temperature coefficient of - 34/100 deg F was deduced. (auth)

• Research Organization: California. Univ., Livermore. Lawrence Radiation Lab.
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• NSA Number: NSA-17-004255
• OSTI ID: 4742956
• Report Number(s): UCRL-6329
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

BERYLLIUM MODERATOR
BERYLLIUM OXIDES
BUCKLING
COMPUTERS
CONFIGURATION
CRITICAL ASSEMBLIES
CRITICALITY
DIFFUSION
ENRICHMENT
FUELS
GROUP THEORY
HIGH TEMPERATURE
HOT BOX
MEASURED VALUES
NEUTRONS
PROGRAMMING
REACTIVITY
REACTOR CORE
REACTOR TECHNOLOGY
TEMPERATURE
TEMPERATURE COEFFICIENT
URANIUM
USES
VOLUME
Z-CODES
ZONES