CONCRETE REFLECTED ARRAYS OF U(93.2) METAL
During the period from 1963 – 1973, experiments involving highly enriched uranium units were performed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Critical Experiments Facility to determine various critical configurations of three-dimensional arrays. The experiments formed a four-part series, and were reported by several different experimenters; the results of interest for this evaluation are those reported for the fourth experimentation, Critical Three-Dimensional Arrays of Neutron Interacting Units: Part IV, published and performed by D.W.Magnuson (Ref 1). Information is also available in the logbook . This set of experiments utilized subcritical metal units on a split table apparatus to determine critical configurations for 2×2×2 arrangements of highly enriched uranium reflected by concrete. Magnuson manipulated the configuration of several uranium cylinders and blocks within a concrete reflector. The different permutations utilized uranium cylinders of two different heights in various positions in the three dimensional array; certain cases also placed thin uranium blocks on top of the cylinders. The thickness of the surrounding concrete, as well as the inner dimensions of the concrete reflector was also varied in certain cases. The variations resulted in fourteen different experimental permutations or configurations. All fourteen configurations were judged to be unacceptable for use as criticality safety benchmarks. All experiments were initially evaluated; however only three configurations were evaluated in detail. Configurations 2, 4, 6 and 12 were not evaluated in detail because they are subcritical and configurations 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10 were also were not evaluated in detail because they were supercritical by more than beta effective (~0.007), or prompt critical. The experiments evaluated in detail for this benchmark were configurations 1, 3, and 11. The experimental report also contains the information for HEU-MET-FAST-056. Closely related work has been recorded in HEU-MET-FAST-053, which is a benchmark evaluation of a different series of three dimensional array experiments with four different moderator materials. HEU-MET-FAST-023 and HEU-MET-FAST-026 are also related because they utilize the same metal cylinders as these experiments.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE - NE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC07-05ID14517
- OSTI ID:
- 1004271
- Report Number(s):
- INL/EXT-10-17643; TRN: US1100960
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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