Hydraulic Shuttle Irradiation System (HSIS) Recently Installed in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR)

Conference · Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2010

OSTI ID:984536

Palmer, A Joseph; McCormick, Gerry L; Corrigan, Shannon J

2010 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP’10) ANS Annual Meeting Imbedded Topical San Diego, CA June 13 – 17, 2010 Hydraulic Shuttle Irradiation System (HSIS) Recently Installed in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) Author: A. Joseph Palmer, Mechanical Engineer, Irradiation Test Programs, 208-526-8700, [e-mail] Affiliation: Idaho National Laboratory P.O. Box 1625, MS-3840 Idaho Falls, ID 83415 INL/CON-10-17680 ABSTRACT Most test reactors are equipped with shuttle facilities (sometimes called rabbit tubes) whereby small capsules can be inserted into the reactor and retrieved during power operations. With the installation of Hydraulic Shuttle Irradiation System (HSIS) this capability has been restored to the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The general design and operating principles of this system were patterned after the hydraulic rabbit at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL) High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), which has operated successfully for many years. Using primary coolant as the motive medium the HSIS system is designed to simultaneously transport fourteen shuttle capsules, each 16 mm OD x 57 mm long, to and from the B-7 position of the reactor. The B-7 position is one of the higher flux positions in the reactor with typical thermal and fast (>1 Mev) fluxes of 2.8E+14 n/cm2/sec and 1.9E+14 n/cm2/sec respectively. The available space inside each shuttle is approximately 14 mm diameter x 50 mm long. The shuttle containers are made from titanium which was selected for its low neutron activation properties and durability. Shuttles can be irradiated for time periods ranging from a few minutes to several months. The Send and Receive Station (SRS) for the HSIS is located 2.5 m deep in the ATR canal which allows irradiated shuttles to be easily moved from the SRS to a wet loaded cask, or transport pig. The HSIS system first irradiated (empty) shuttles in September 2009 and has since completed a Readiness Assessment in November 2009. The HSIS is a key component of the ATR National Scientific User Facility (NSUF) operated by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC and is available to a wide variety of university researchers for nuclear fuels and materials experiments as well as medical isotope research and production.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: OTHER
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 984536
• Report Number(s): INL/CON-10-17680; TRN: US1005938
• Resource Relation: Conference: 2010 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP’10),San Diego, CA,06/13/2010,06/17/2010
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

07 ISOTOPES AND RADIATION SOURCES
42 ENGINEERING
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
CONTAINERS
COOLANTS
DESIGN
HFIR REACTOR
HYDRAULICS
IDAHO
IRRADIATION
NEUTRONS
NUCLEAR FUELS
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
ORNL
PRODUCTION
RABBIT TUBES
RABBITS
TEST REACTORS
TITANIUM
TRANSPORT
ATR
HSIS
irradiation
neutron
rabbit
shuttle