Technical note on the determination of K-reactor last-ditch cooling adequacy

摘要

The Hanford reactors contain a very large inventory of fission products and it is very important that this inventory be contained. In recognition of this, rather stringent reactor cooling requirements have been established for the Hanford reactors. This includes the requirement of three independent cooling systems, including the system for full level operation. The second and last-ditch systems both are usable only after a reactor scram and take-over automatically from the flywheel decay of the process pumps. In 1962, two projects were completed that affected the last-ditch cooling adequacy of the K reactors, One project increased the reactor pumping capacity and, therefore, its power level; and the other considerably modified the emergency cooling systems. Since this time, three tests have been conducted to determine this last-ditch cooing adequacy. In order to provide a uniform approach to this adequacy determination, the method employed by Reactor Engineering is presented herein. The report presents a method for determining the maximum reactor power level for which measured last-ditch flows will provide adequate emergency cooling, A number of pertinent charts are included, A method is also presented for determining the last-ditch flow that should be measured during a test for any desired level of normal reactor operation.