Core Management And Fuel Handling For Research Reactors: Safety Guide

摘要

The purpose of this Safety Guide is to provide recommendations on meeting the safety requirements for core management and fuel handling at research reactors, on the basis of international good practices. This Safety Guide addresses those aspects of core management activities that should be performed in order to allow optimum reactor core operation and reactor utilization for experiments, without compromising the limits imposed by the design safety considerations relating to the fuel assemblies and the reactor as a whole. In this publication, 'core management' refers to those activities that are associated with the fuel assemblies, management of core components (Core components are the elements of a reactor core, other than fuel assemblies, that are used to provide structural support of the core construction, or the tools, devices or other items that are inserted into the reactor core for monitoring, flow control or other technological purposes and are treated as core elements. Core components include experimental devices that may be fixed in the core (e.g. flux trap and test loop components, cold and hot neutron sources, and bulk samples for irradiation)) and reactivity control. 'Fuel handling' refers to the movement, storage and control of fresh and irradiated fuel, whether manually or by means of automated systems. This Safety Guide is intended for use by operating organizations, regulatory bodies and other organizations involved in the operation of research reactors.