RUSSIAN DATA FOR CRITICALITY SAFETY CHALLENGES IN THE NEXT DECADE

摘要

Most Russian critical experiments of relatively simple geometry and composition were carried out in the two largest nuclear centres of Russia: I.V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy (now RRC "Kurchatov Institute") - mainly for assemblies with thermal and intermediate neutron spectra, and in the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE) - mainly for fast neutron systems.rnThis paper gives a review of available data on the criticality of uranium systems with water and other hydrogen-containing moderators, as well as with beryllium, beryllium oxide, and graphite, in a wide range of ~(235)U enrichment, ratio of moderator and uranium nuclear concentrations, and temperature. It is expected that these data (most of them never published before) contain information that will be valuable for answering some of the criticality safety challenges we face in the next decade.