Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the 2003 International RERTR Meeting
FEASIBILITY STUDIES FOR LEU CONVERSION OF THE WWR-SM REACTOR IN UZBEKISTAN USING PIN-TYPE AND TUBULAR FUELS
N.A. Hanan, A.P. Olson, and J.E. Matos
RERTR Program
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne, IL USA
ABSTRACT
The 10 MW
WWR-SM research reactor in Uzbekistan currently uses HEU (36%) IRT-3M 6-tube
fuel assemblies manufactured by the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant in
Russia. This study compares the
neutronic performance and preliminary thermal-hydraulic performance of the
reactor and its experiments for several core sizes using various LEU pin-type
and LEU tube-type fuel assembly designs with the performance of the current HEU
(36%) reference fuel assembly and core.
Several LEU fuel assembly designs are identified which would be suitable
for conversion of the WWR-SM reactor if they are manufactured, successfully
irradiation tested, and made commercially available in Russia.