Library Subscription: Guest

ISSN Online: 2377-424X

International Heat Transfer Conference 12
August, 18-23, 2002, Grenoble, France

Thermal Evaluations for an Experiment in the Advanced Test Reactor Irradiation Test Vehicle

Get access (open in a dialog) DOI: 10.1615/IHTC12.4300
6 pages

Abstract

British Nuclear Fuels Limited, (BNFL) has initiated a graphite irradiation program to ensure continued safe operation of the Magnox nuclear power stations. Of primary concern is the integrity of the graphite in the Magnox reactor cores. The graphite acts not only as a neutron moderator, but also provides the physical structure for the fuel, control rods, instrumentation, and channels for the passage of coolant. Currently the Magnox reactors are operating beyond their design lifetimes and extension of the existing graphite physical properties database for higher radiolytic weight loss (35-50% density reduction) is needed for continued reactor operation. The program will irradiate samples of archive pre-characterized graphite used in the Magnox type reactors in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at the United States Department of Energy's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL).

The new Irradiation Test Vehicle (ITV) facility in the ATR was selected for the irradiation to provide the desired irradiation conditions and on-line temperature control. A new gas environment system was also added to the ITV to provide both oxidizing and inert gas atmospheres for the graphite specimens. This will provide specimens with both the oxidation and neutron damage as well as specimens with just neutron damage.

This paper discusses the physics calculations performed to support the design of the experiment and the thermal evaluations performed to size the control gaps to obtain the desired thermal performance.