Conversion Analyses for the VR-1 Reactor

Technical Report · Wed Jun 15 04:00:00 EDT 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/885491· OSTI ID:885491

Hannan, N. A. ^[1]; Matos, J. E. ^[1]; Stillman, J. A. ^[1]; Olson, A. P. ^[1]; Garner, P. L. ^[1]

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1. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

At the request of the Czech Technical University (CTU) in Prague, ANL has performed independent verification calculations using the MCNP Monte Carlo code for three core configurations of the VR-1 reactor: a current core configuration B1 with HEU (36%) IRT-3M fuel assemblies and planned core configurations C1 and C2 with LEU (19.7%) IRT-4M fuel assemblies. Details of these configurations were provided to ANL by CTU. For core configuration B1, criticality calculations were performed for two sets of control rod positions provided to ANL by CTU. Fore core configurations C1 and C2, criticality calculations were done for cases with all control rods at the top positions, all control rods at the bottom positions, and two critical states of the reactor for different control rod positions. In addition, sensitivity studies for variation of the ²³⁵U mass in each fuel assembly and variation of the fuel meat and cladding thicknesses in each of the fuel tubes were doe for the C1 core configuration. The reactivity worth of the individual control rods was calculated for the B1, C1, and C2 core configurations. Finally, the reactivity feedback coefficients, the prompt neutron lifetime, and the total effective delay neutron fraction were calculated for each of the three cores.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 885491
• Report Number(s): ANL-05/18
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: ENGLISH

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ANL
CONFIGURATION
CONTROL ELEMENTS
CRITICALITY
Criticality Calculations
FEEDBACK
FUEL ASSEMBLIES
Fuel Meat
IRT-3M HEU
IRT-4T LEU
LIFETIME
MEAT
NEUTRONS
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
PROMPT NEUTRONS
REACTIVITY WORTHS
SENSITIVITY
Transient Analyses
VERIFICATION
VR-1
VR-1 REACTOR