A Re-Introduction to "Anomalies of Criticality"
- Columbia Basin College, Pasco, WA (United States)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Fluor Government Group, Richland, WA (United States)
In 1974, a small innocuous document was submitted to the American Nuclear Society's Criticality Safety Division for publication that would have lasting impacts on this nuclear field The author was Duane Clayton, manager of the Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Critical Mass Lab, the world's preeminent reactor critical experimenter with plutonium solutions. The document was entitled, 'Anomalies of Criticality'. 'Anomalies...' was a compilation of more than thirty separate and distinct examples of departures from what might be commonly expected in the field of nuclear criticality. Mr. Clayton's publication was the derivative of more than ten thousand experiments and countless analytical studies conducted world-wide on every conceivable reactor system imaginable: from fissile bearing solutions to solids, blocks to arrays of fuel rods, low-enriched uranium oxide systems to pure plutonium and highly enriched uranium systems. After publication, the document was commonly used within the nuclear fuel cycle and reactor community to train potential criticality/reactor analysts, experimenters and fuel handlers on important things for consideration when designing systems with critically 'safe' parameters in mind The purpose of this paper is to re-introduce 'Anomalies of Criticality' to the current Criticality Safety community and to add new 'anomalies' to the existing compendium. By so doing, it is the authors' hope that a new generation of nuclear workers and criticality engineers will benefit from its content and might continue to build upon this work in support of the nuclear renaissance that is about to occur.
- Research Organization:
- Hanford Site (HNF), Richland, WA (United States); Columbia Basin College, Pasco, WA (United States); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Fluor Government Group, Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP); USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC06-08RL14788
- OSTI ID:
- 963957
- Report Number(s):
- CHPRC-00301-FP Rev 0
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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