STUDY OF REQUIREMENTS AND SUITABILITY OF AVAILABLE REACTORS FOR FAST FUEL TESTS
The requirements for radiation space for fast reactor fuel testing and the capability of existing test and power reactors to meet these requirements were studied. Particular attention was given to the possible modification of the EOCR to a sodium cooled fast reactor fuel testing facility. The future requirements for fast fuel testing as compiled, based on the estimates given by potential fast fuel experimenters, are extensive and cannot be completely met with existing test or fast reactors. Only a part of the total program can be accomplished by using liquid metal loops in test reactors and these tests would be very costly. Most of the proof testing of subassemblies can be accomplished in either the EBR-II or the Fermi fast reactor. A fast test reactor with considerable testing space in the form of open and closed loops will be required for the fast reactor program. A total of eight closed loops and eight open loops of from 3 to 6 in. in diameter would be required, in addition to ten 1.5-in. holes and several 5-in. holes for capsule experiments for the total program. Part of those requirements can be considered met by the subassembly positions in EBR-II and the Cermi reactor. The closed loops must be designed to accommodate fuel tests taken to failure, and to operate at a very high fast neutron flux. These large closed loops are the principal deficiency in the existing fast reactors. In the ETR and ATR, it is theoretically possible to install a loop or a capsule with a boron filter to obtain sufficiently high heat generation rates without serious flux depressions to obtain a worthwhile test. In these cases the total test reactor power that is required is very high and would result in very high operating costs and low reactor utilization. The fast region in the proposed two-region SRE with the PEP thermal core appears to be mechanically satisfactory and feasible from a material comparibility standpoint. A fast converter in this reactor design is somewhat limited, since the total heat- generation in the fast sample is about onethird of the value in the ETR tor the same acceptible or superior flux depression. By substituting enriched for depleted uranium in the mixed oxide test sample, the minimum acceptable heat generation could be achieved. A liquid metal fast loop in the EOCR is easier to accommodate mechanically and physically than in other test reactors that are not cooled by liquid metal, because of the better compatibility of sodium and organic. Using a boron filter, the heat generation in the fast test sample is about one- third of the value in the ETR and is, therefore, not particularly attractive. It does not appear to be practical to directly convert the EOCR to an FTR because of the need (or containment and the major neutron shielding changes required. However, it does appear to be feasible and attractive to consider building a small FTR immediately adjacent to the EOCR, using the EOCR reactor vessel as a heat exchanger vessel between sodium and organic and the existing organic as a secondary coolant system. Although no detailed physics analyses were made, it appears that the MTR, the General Electric Test Reactor (GETR), and the Westinghouse Test Reactor (WTR) are not suitable for filtered fast loop experiments. In these reactors the power density is considerably below that required for a satisfactory heat generation in the fast fuel specimen. In addition, no provisions were made in the MTR to install loops in the core. It may be possible to increase the power density or harden the spectrum, however, to make these suitable for this work. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- Atomic Power Development Associates, Inc., Detroit, MI (USA)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AT(11-1)-865
- NSA Number:
- NSA-18-001295
- OSTI ID:
- 4152591
- Report Number(s):
- APDA-153
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-64
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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