Criticality Calculations for the VR-1 Reactor with IRT-3M-HEU Fuel and IRT-4MLEU Fuel

Technical Report · Wed Jun 08 00:00:00 EDT 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/898523· OSTI ID:898523

Hanan, N. A. ^[1]; Matos, J. E. ^[1]

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1. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

At The request of the Czech Technical University in Prague, ANL has performed independent verification calculations using the MCNP Monte Carlo code for three core configurations of the VR-1 reactor: a current core configuration B1 with HEU (36%) IRT-3M fuel assemblies and planned core configurations C1 and C2 with LEU (19.7%) IRT-4M fuel assemblies. Details of these configurations were provided to ANL by CTU. For core configuration B1, criticality calculations were performed for two sets of control rod positions provided to ANL by CTU. For core configurations C1 and C2, criticality calculations were done for cases with all control rods at the top positions, all control rods at the bottom positions, and two critical states of the reactor for different control rod positions. In addition, sensitivity studies for variation of the ²³⁵U mass in each fuel assembly and variation of the fuel meat and cladding thicknesses in each of the fuel tubes were done for the C1 core configuration. Finally the reactivity worth of the individual control rods was calculated for the B1, C1, and C2 core configurations.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-06CH11357
• OSTI ID: 898523
• Report Number(s): ANL-05/23; TRN: US0703543
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: ENGLISH

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
ANL
CONFIGURATION
CONTROL ELEMENTS
CRITICALITY
FUEL ASSEMBLIES
REACTIVITY WORTHS
SENSITIVITY
VERIFICATION
VR-1 REACTOR
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
Criticality Calculations
VR-1
IRT-3M HEU
IRT-4T LEU
Fuel Meat