Large reactivity transients in dilute plutonium-water solutions

Journal Article · Mon Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1997 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society

OSTI ID:552480

Hetrick, D L; Newkirk, S T ^[1]

---

1. Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)

The possibility of autocatalytic nuclear excursions in plutonium processing vessels and high-level waste storage has recently received some attention. One source of such possible behavior is the positive neutron spectral temperature coefficient that is predicted for solution concentrations below 20 g plutonium/l. The purpose of this paper is to report some new dynamic simulations for realistic plutonium solution assemblies and to offer some physical insight into the phenomena involved. Previous computations for hypothetical plutonium-water assemblies used an earlier version of our simulation models. The models were originally developed for uranium-water solutions and benchmarked against solution reactor experiments and laboratory simulations of criticality accidents. Neutron temperature coefficients used in the new plutonium-water simulations were computed by Kornreich, and the critical configuration data and volume expansion reactivity coefficients were computed by Lee and Lee and Hetrick. Some recent dynamic results are included in the thesis by Newkirk. Computations were performed using the personal computer simulation language DESIRE.

• OSTI ID: 552480
• Report Number(s): CONF-971125--
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society Vol. 77; ISSN 0003-018X; ISSN TANSAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
42 ENGINEERING
AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS
CALCULATION METHODS
CRITICALITY
NEUTRON SPECTRA
PLUTONIUM NITRATES
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
REACTIVITY