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Title: Nuclear characterization of a general-purpose instrumentation and materials testing location in TREAT

Abstract

The Transient Reactor Test facility (TREAT) was constructed in the late 1950s, provided thousands of transient irradiations before being placed in standby in 1994, and resumed operations in 2017 in order to reclaim its crucial role in nuclear-heated safety research. The latter half of TREAT’s historic operation was best known for integral-scale testing of fuel specimens under postulated reactor plant accident conditions, while TREAT’s earlier history included extensive simpler phenomena identification tests that elucidated fundamental behaviors and paved the way for these integral-scale tests. Advances in modern computational capabilities and a resurgence of interest in novel reactor technology have created an opportunity for emphasizing modernized science-based and separate effects test capabilities once again at TREAT. An innovative approach to this type of testing has been developed to leverage minor radioactivity built-in during brief TREAT irradiations in low activation hardware to facilitate handling for materials and instrumentation testing. This capability, termed the Minimal Activation Retrievable Capsule Holder (MARCH) irradiation vehicle system, will be used for inaugural fueled experiments in TREAT’s modern era as well as novel approaches to study materials undergoing neutron irradiation and instrumentation development and qualifications. This paper describes a comprehensive nuclear characterization, obtained via computational modeling, of themore » test position in the MARCH system. Though directly applicable to the MARCH system, the results also provide general quantification of the nuclear performance of the reactor and potential test materials, crucial for evaluating potential experiment design and response in TREAT. The neutron and photon flux environment was calculated via MCNP with ENDF/B-VII.1 nuclear data. Wire heating rate and DPA calculations were also performed and evaluated using historic TREAT test data. Furthermore, these calculations were performed to provide steady-state baseline reference values typical in both half- and full-slotted TREAT core configurations, enabling design scoping analysis prior to development of more specific design testing needs and transient testing experimentation.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
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  1. Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
OSTI Identifier:
1557659
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1636415
Report Number(s):
INL/JOU-18-44851-Rev000
Journal ID: ISSN 0306-4549
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC07-05ID14517
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Annals of Nuclear Energy (Oxford)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Annals of Nuclear Energy (Oxford); Journal Volume: 124; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0306-4549
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS; 21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS; 22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS; 73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS; 97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING; TREAT; MCNP; Steady-State; Transient Testing; Baseline; Reactor Characterization; In-Pile Instrumentation; Irradiation Environment; Nuclear Testing; Fuels and Materials; MARCH; BUSTER; MIMIC; Neutron Flux; Photon Flux; DPA; Heating Rates; Historic Data; Validation; Graphite Reactor

Citation Formats

Bess, John D., Woolstenhulme, Nicolas E., Jensen, Colby B., Parry, James R., and Hill, Connie M. Nuclear characterization of a general-purpose instrumentation and materials testing location in TREAT. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2018.10.011.
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Bess, John D., Woolstenhulme, Nicolas E., Jensen, Colby B., Parry, James R., & Hill, Connie M. Nuclear characterization of a general-purpose instrumentation and materials testing location in TREAT. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2018.10.011
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Bess, John D., Woolstenhulme, Nicolas E., Jensen, Colby B., Parry, James R., and Hill, Connie M. Thu . "Nuclear characterization of a general-purpose instrumentation and materials testing location in TREAT". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2018.10.011. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1557659.
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@article{osti_1557659,
title = {Nuclear characterization of a general-purpose instrumentation and materials testing location in TREAT},
author = {Bess, John D. and Woolstenhulme, Nicolas E. and Jensen, Colby B. and Parry, James R. and Hill, Connie M.},
abstractNote = {The Transient Reactor Test facility (TREAT) was constructed in the late 1950s, provided thousands of transient irradiations before being placed in standby in 1994, and resumed operations in 2017 in order to reclaim its crucial role in nuclear-heated safety research. The latter half of TREAT’s historic operation was best known for integral-scale testing of fuel specimens under postulated reactor plant accident conditions, while TREAT’s earlier history included extensive simpler phenomena identification tests that elucidated fundamental behaviors and paved the way for these integral-scale tests. Advances in modern computational capabilities and a resurgence of interest in novel reactor technology have created an opportunity for emphasizing modernized science-based and separate effects test capabilities once again at TREAT. An innovative approach to this type of testing has been developed to leverage minor radioactivity built-in during brief TREAT irradiations in low activation hardware to facilitate handling for materials and instrumentation testing. This capability, termed the Minimal Activation Retrievable Capsule Holder (MARCH) irradiation vehicle system, will be used for inaugural fueled experiments in TREAT’s modern era as well as novel approaches to study materials undergoing neutron irradiation and instrumentation development and qualifications. This paper describes a comprehensive nuclear characterization, obtained via computational modeling, of the test position in the MARCH system. Though directly applicable to the MARCH system, the results also provide general quantification of the nuclear performance of the reactor and potential test materials, crucial for evaluating potential experiment design and response in TREAT. The neutron and photon flux environment was calculated via MCNP with ENDF/B-VII.1 nuclear data. Wire heating rate and DPA calculations were also performed and evaluated using historic TREAT test data. Furthermore, these calculations were performed to provide steady-state baseline reference values typical in both half- and full-slotted TREAT core configurations, enabling design scoping analysis prior to development of more specific design testing needs and transient testing experimentation.},
doi = {10.1016/j.anucene.2018.10.011},
journal = {Annals of Nuclear Energy (Oxford)},
number = C,
volume = 124,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Oct 11 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Thu Oct 11 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}
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Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2018.10.011
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Cited by: 14 works
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Figures / Tables:

Fig. 1 Fig. 1: Isometric Overview of TREAT Features, ¾ Section View (Bess and DeHart 2015).
All figures and tables (32 total)
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Works referenced in this record:

Materials challenges for nuclear systems
journal, December 2010

An Overview of the International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project
journal, November 2014

  • Briggs, J. Blair; Gulliford, Jim
  • Nuclear Science and Engineering, Vol. 178, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.13182/NSE14-27

ENDF/B-VII.1 Nuclear Data for Science and Technology: Cross Sections, Covariances, Fission Product Yields and Decay Data
journal, December 2011

Fast-Neutron Hodoscope at TREAT: Methods for Quantitative Determination of Fuel Dispersal
journal, January 1982

  • Volpi, A. De; Fink, C. L.; Marsh, G. E.
  • Nuclear Technology, Vol. 56, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.13182/NT82-1

Interpretation of energy deposition data from historical operation of the transient test facility (TREAT)
journal, October 2017

The performance of hafnium and gadolinium self powered neutron detectors in the TREAT reactor
journal, May 1996

  • Imel, G. R.; Hart, P. R.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, Vol. 111, Issue 3-4
  • DOI: 10.1016/0168-583X(95)01364-4

Time Dependence of Test Fuel Power Coupling During Transient Reactor Test Facility Irradiation Experiments
journal, February 1984

  • Klotzkin, Gerald; Swanson, Richard W.; Hart, Paul
  • Nuclear Science and Engineering, Vol. 86, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.13182/NSE84-2

Evaluation of effective threshold displacement energies and other data required for the calculation of advanced atomic displacement cross-sections
journal, September 2017

Overview of microstructural evolution in neutron-irradiated austenitic stainless steels
journal, October 1993

A proposed method of calculating displacement dose rates
journal, August 1975

Structural materials for fission & fusion energy
journal, November 2009

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    Works referencing / citing this record:

    Development of Advanced Instrumentation for Transient Testing
    journal, August 2019

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      Figures / Tables found in this record:

      Fig. 1 (p. 7)figure
      Fig. 2 (p. 8)figure
      Fig. 3 (p. 13)figure
      Fig. 4 (p. 14)figure
      Table 1 (p. 19)table
      Fig. 5 (p. 22)figure
      Figure 5 (p. 22)figure
      Fig. 7 (p. 26)figure
      Fig. 8 (p. 27)figure
      Fig. 9 (p. 29)figure
      Fig. 10 (p. 30)figure
      Fig. 11 (p. 31)figure
      Fig. 12 (p. 32)figure
      Fig. 13 (p. 34)figure
      Table 2 (p. 37)table
      Table 3 (p. 40)table
      Fig. 14 (p. 43)figure
      Fig. 15 (p. 44)figure
      Fig. 16 (p. 45)figure
      Fig. 17 (p. 46)figure
      Fig. 18 (p. 48)figure
      Fig. 19 (p. 49)figure
      Fig. 20 (p. 51)figure
      Fig. 21 (p. 52)figure
      Fig. 22 (p. 53)figure
      Table 4 (p. 55)table
      Table 5 (p. 57)table
      Table 6 (p. 58)table
      Table 7 (p. 59)table
      Table 8 (p. 60)table
      Table 9 (p. 62)table
      Table 10 (p. 65)table
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