THERMAL PERFORMANCE OF A FAST NEUTRON TEST CONCEPT FOR THE ADVANCED TEST REACTOR

摘要

Since 1967, the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) located at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has provided state-of-the-art experimental irradiation testing capability. A unique design is investigated herein for the purpose of providing a fast neutron flux test capability in the ATR. This new test capability could be brought on line in approximately 5 or 6 years, much sooner than a new test reactor could be built, to provide an interim fast-flux test capability in the timeframe before a fast-flux research reactor could be built. The proposed cost for this system is approximately $63M, much less than the cost of a new fast-flux test reactor. A concept has been developed to filter out a large portion of the thermal neutron flux component by using a thermally conductive neutron absorber block. The objective of this study is to determine the feasibility of this experiment cooling concept.