Core a Critical Studies for the Enrico Fermi Atomic Power Plant on ZPR-III

Technical Report · Mon Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1962

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4772486· OSTI ID:4772486

Branyan, C. E. ^[1]

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1. Argonne National Lab., Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Atomic Power Development Associates, Inc., NY (United States)

A critical studies program for the Enrico Fermi Atomic Power Plant was run with the ZPR-III fast critical facility. The objectives of this program included determination of the uranium enrichment required for criticality, the effect of minor variations in core and blanket composition, reactivity coefficients, control and safety rod characteristics, power distribution, spectral indices, and the reactivity worth and wave shape of the oscillator rod. The experimental program was separated into two phases. The first phase involved investigations of a clean assembly, which was a simplified and homogenized core and blanket geometry constructed for ease of experimental manipulation and analysis. The second phase involved experiments on the engineered, or as-designed, core. This assembly included such engineering details as control and safety rod channels, core end gaps, and a precise reconstruction of the core outline. This provided detailed information on worths of control rods and fuel subassemblies, power distribution, and the effect of variations in core and end-gap dimensions. The application of critical experiment data to the determination of the Enrico Fermi reactor characteristics has established the U²³⁵ enrichment for the fuel alloy, worths of fuel subassemblies, and the B¹⁰ enrichment for the control and safety rods. In addition, material-substitution experiments and fuel-worth measurements have provided the parametric data for the determination of the net temperature coefficient of the Enrico Fermi reactor.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP); US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• NSA Number: NSA-17-004294
• OSTI ID: 4772486
• Report Number(s): ANL-6629
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
ALLOYS
BLANKETS
BORON 10
CONFIGURATION
CONTROL
CONTROL ELEMENTS
CONTROL ROD WORTH
CRITICAL ASSEMBLIES
CRITICALITY
DISTRIBUTION
ENRICHMENT
EXPANSION
Experiment Data
FAST NEUTRONS
FUEL ELEMENTS
FUELS
Fermi Reactor
IN PILE LOOPS
MEASURED VALUES
NEUTRON FLUX
NEUTRONS
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
PLANNING
POWER
POWER PLANTS
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
REACTIVITY
REACTOR CORE
REACTOR OSCILLATORS
REACTOR SAFETY
REACTORS
RODS
Reactivity Coefficients
SPECTRA
Safety Rod
TEMPERATURE
U235
URANIUM
URANIUM 235
VARIATIONS
ZPR-3