Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
1999 International RERTR Meeting

COMPARISON OF THE PARAMETERS OF THE IR-8 REACTOR WITH DIFFERENT FUEL ASSEMBLY DESIGNS WITH LEU FUEL

A. Vatulin, Y. Stetsky, I. Dobrikova
State Scientific Center
 All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Inorganic Materials (VNIINM), 123060 Moscow, Russia

аnd

N. Arkhangelsky
Ministry of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation

ABSTRACT

The estimation of neutron-physical, heat and hydraulic parameters of the IR-8 research reactor with low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel was performed. Two fuel assembly (FA) designs were reviewed: IRT-4M with the tubular type fuel elements and IRT-MR with the rod type fuel elements. UO₂-Al dispersion 19,75% enrichment fuel is used in both cases. The results of the calculations were compared with main parameters of the reactor, using the current IRT-3M FA with 90% high enriched uranium (HEU) fuel. The results of these comparisons showed that during the LEU conversion of the reactor the cycle length, excess reactivity and peak power of the IRT-MR type FA are higher than for the IRT-3M type FA and IRT-4M type FA.

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