TY - GEN
T1 - A SUBCRITICAL ASSEMBLY FOR TRAINING AND EDUCATION USE AT THE OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY
AU - Bowen, Douglas G.
AU - Dupont, Mathieu
AU - Lang, Alex
AU - Holcomb, Andrew
AU - Hart, Shane
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Proceedings of the Nuclear Criticality Safety Division Topical Meeting, NCSD 2022 - Embedded with the 2022 ANS Annual Meeting. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - A near-final design has been completed for a new subcritical assembly at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). This subcritical assembly will support the Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP) training and education program to augment current subcritical assembly capabilities at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC). Other collaborations have been proposed with the Sunrise Consortium and others. This proposed subcritical assembly uses legacy AGN-201M research reactor fuel plates that are available from the Y-12 National Security Complex. This subcritical assembly contains approximately 620 grams of 235U as UO2 particulates distributed homogeneously in radiation-stabilized polyethylene. The fuel plates will have a graphite neutron reflector to obtain a core multiplication, M, from 10 to 50, corresponding to a keff of 0.9 to 0.95, respectively. The subcritical assembly will be able to support at least four experiments for the training courses: (1) the addition of fissile material to increase neutron multiplication (mass), (2) a core separation experiment (interaction), (3) the effect of adding moderators to the core (moderation), and (4) the effect of adding neutron absorbers to the core (poison/absorption). The proposed ORNL subcritical assembly will provide additional student bandwidth to support NCSP training courses and to provide for some backup capacity if nuclear facility operations are disrupted at SNL or NCERC due to some unforeseen issue. The subcritical assembly will be designed to be an inherently safe subcritical assembly-subcritical under all normal and abnormal conditions-and it will provide the capability to conduct hands-on training to support NCSP and general nuclear criticality safety (NCS) staff training and qualification goals.
AB - A near-final design has been completed for a new subcritical assembly at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). This subcritical assembly will support the Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP) training and education program to augment current subcritical assembly capabilities at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC). Other collaborations have been proposed with the Sunrise Consortium and others. This proposed subcritical assembly uses legacy AGN-201M research reactor fuel plates that are available from the Y-12 National Security Complex. This subcritical assembly contains approximately 620 grams of 235U as UO2 particulates distributed homogeneously in radiation-stabilized polyethylene. The fuel plates will have a graphite neutron reflector to obtain a core multiplication, M, from 10 to 50, corresponding to a keff of 0.9 to 0.95, respectively. The subcritical assembly will be able to support at least four experiments for the training courses: (1) the addition of fissile material to increase neutron multiplication (mass), (2) a core separation experiment (interaction), (3) the effect of adding moderators to the core (moderation), and (4) the effect of adding neutron absorbers to the core (poison/absorption). The proposed ORNL subcritical assembly will provide additional student bandwidth to support NCSP training courses and to provide for some backup capacity if nuclear facility operations are disrupted at SNL or NCERC due to some unforeseen issue. The subcritical assembly will be designed to be an inherently safe subcritical assembly-subcritical under all normal and abnormal conditions-and it will provide the capability to conduct hands-on training to support NCSP and general nuclear criticality safety (NCS) staff training and qualification goals.
KW - critical experiments
KW - education
KW - Nuclear Criticality Safety
KW - subcritical experiments
KW - training
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85202519598&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.13182/T126-37494
DO - 10.13182/T126-37494
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85202519598
T3 - Proceedings of the Nuclear Criticality Safety Division Topical Meeting, NCSD 2022 - Embedded with the 2022 ANS Annual Meeting
SP - 402
EP - 411
BT - Proceedings of the Nuclear Criticality Safety Division Topical Meeting, NCSD 2022 - Embedded with the 2022 ANS Annual Meeting
PB - American Nuclear Society
T2 - 2022 Nuclear Criticality Safety Division Topical Meeting, NCSD 2022
Y2 - 12 June 2022 through 16 June 2022
ER -