Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
2004 International RERTR Meeting
SAFETY ANALYSIS OF THE WWR-M REACTOR IN UKRAINE TO ALLOW OPERATION USING LEU FUEL
Y. P. Mahlers and A. G. Dyakov
Kiev Institute for Nuclear Research Kiev 03680,
Ukraine
ABSTRACT
The WWR-M research reactor in Ukraine is jointly studied by the Argonne National Laboratory and the Kiev Institute for Nuclear Research for conversion to LEU (19.75%) fuel. Candidate LEU replacement fuel assemblies are LEU WWR-M2 (3 tubes, UO2-Al fuel meat with 2.5 gU/cm3 and 41.7 g 235U), which have been tested successfully in the WWR-M reactor in Gatchina by irradiation to over 75% burnup. To qualify this LEU fuel for conversion of the WWR-M reactor in Ukraine, the safety analysis is performed. Neutronic and thermal-hydraulic characteristics of LEU fuel equilibrium core and transition mixed core containing both LEU and HEU fuel are calculated. The following accidents are analyzed: spontaneous withdrawal of a control rod bank and incidental falling of a fuel assembly in a cell of the core. The models applied for calculations are validated against measured data, which include critical experiment results for fresh fuel assemblies and measured neutronic distributions in a real WWR-M reactor core.
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Contact:
Dr. Jordi Roglans-Ribas
Technical Director, RERTR Department
Nuclear Engineering Division – 362
Argonne National Laboratory
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Argonne, IL 60439
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