ZPR-3 Assembly 12: A Cylindrical Assembly of Highly Enriched Uranium, Depleted Uranium and Graphite with an Average (sup 235)U Enrichment of 21 Atom %

摘要

Over a period of 30 years, more than a hundred Zero Power Reactor (ZPR) critical assemblies were constructed at Argonne National Laboratory. The ZPR facilities, ZPR-3, ZPR-6, ZPR-9 and ZPPR, were all fast critical assembly facilities. The ZPR critical assemblies were constructed to support fast reactor development, but data from some of these assemblies are also well suited for nuclear data validation and to form the basis for criticality safety benchmarks. A number of the Argonne ZPR/ZPPR critical assemblies have been evaluated as ICSBEP and IRPhEP benchmarks. Of the three classes of ZPR assemblies, engineering mockups, engineering benchmarks and physics benchmarks, the last group tends to be most useful for criticality safety. Because physics benchmarks were designed to test fast reactor physics data and methods, they were as simple as possible in geometry and composition. The principal fissile species was (sup 235)U or (sup 239)Pu. Fuel enrichments ranged from 9% to 95%. Often there were only one or two main core diluent materials, such as aluminum, graphite, iron, sodium or stainless steel. The cores were reflected (and insulated from room return effects) by one or two layers of materials such as depleted uranium, lead or stainless steel. Despite their more complex nature, a small number of assemblies from the other two classes would make useful criticality safety benchmarks because they have features related to criticality safety issues, such as reflection by soil-like material. ZPR-3 Assembly 12 (ZPR-3/12) was designed as a fast reactor physics benchmark experiment with an average core (sup 235)U enrichment of approximately 21 at.%.