AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE TEMPERATURE VARIATIONS FOLLOWING A SINGLE CHANNEL FIRE IN AN OPERATING CALDER REACTOR USING 'DEMON' - A TWO-DIMENSIONAL MULTIPLANE COMPUTER PROGRAM

摘要

This report describes the application of a computer program in which a comprehensive two-dimensional representation in several axially spaced planes is used to investigate the flow of heat from a single channel fire to the surrounding channels in the core of any square-pitched Stage 1 reactor. Wigner energy is released from the intervening graphite moderator under the influence of simple annealing kinetics based on a constant activation energy, and this method has been compared with the simpler concept of reduced specific heats.nThe results which have been obtained show that a single channel fire in an operating Calder reactor should not spread to ignite the magnox in normal surrounding channels even when the graphite energy storage is much greater than that predicted on present theories for the projected twenty year life of this reactor.