CRITICAL AND EXPONENTIAL EXPERIMENTS ON 19-ROD CLUSTERS (R3 FUEL) IN HEAVY WATER

Technical Report · Thu Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1962

OSTI ID:4792302

Persson, R; Wikdahl, C; Zadwoski, Z

Buckling measurements on clusters of 19 UO/sub 2/ rods in heavy water were performed in an exponential assembly and by means of substitution measurements in a critical facility. The material buckling was determined as a function of lattice pitch (range of V/sub mod./V/sub fuel/: 7 to 22), internal spacing void, and temperature (20 < T < 90 deg C). The change of diffusion coefficients (about 6 to 8%) caused by voids was studied with single test fuel assemblies. The progressive substitution measurements were analyzed by means of a modified one-group perturbation theory in combination with an unconventional cell definition. The buckling differences between test and reference lattices were of the order of -1.0 to -3.5 m/sup -2/. The results of the exponential and the critical experiments were compared with similar measurements on the same kind of fuel. This companison showed that the results of the various experiments agree quite well, whereas theoretical predictions fail in the extreme ranges. (auth)

• Research Organization: Aktiebolaget Atomenergi, Studsvik, Sweden
• NSA Number: NSA-16-015766
• OSTI ID: 4792302
• Report Number(s): AE-66
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

Related Subjects

BUCKLING
CONFIGURATION
CRITICAL ASSEMBLIES
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
DIFFUSION
EXPONENTIAL PILES
FUEL ELEMENTS
GROUP THEORY
HEAVY WATER MODERATOR
MEASURED VALUES
NEUTRONS
PERTURBATION THEORY
REACTOR CORE
REACTOR TECHNOLOGY
RODS
TEMPERATURE
URANIUM DIOXIDE
VARIATIONS