HTR-Proteus Pebble Bed Experimental Program Cores 9 and 10: Columnar Hexagonal Point-on-Point Packing with a 1:1 Moderator-to-Fuel Pebble Ratio.

摘要

PROTEUS is a zero-power research reactor based on a cylindrical graphite annulus with a central cylindrical cavity; it is a part of the Paul Scherrer Institute (formerly EIR, Eidgenossisches Institut fur Reaktorforschung) and is situated near Wurenlingen in the canton of Aargau in northern Switzerland. The graphite annulus remains basically the same for all experimental programs, but the contents of the central cavity are changed according to the type of reactor being investigated. Through most of its service history, PROTEUS has represented light-water reactors, but from 1992 to 1996 PROTEUS was configured as a pebble-bed reactor (PBR) critical facility and designated as HTR-PROTEUS. The nomenclature was used to indicate that this series consisted of High Temperature Reactor experiments performed in the PROTEUS assembly. During this period, seventeen critical configurations were assembled and various reactor physics experiments were conducted. These experiments included measurements of criticality, differential and integral control rod and safety rod worths, kinetics, reaction rates, water ingress effects, and small sample reactivity effects (Ref. 3). HTR-PROTEUS was constructed, and the experimental program was conducted, for the purpose of providing experimental benchmark data for assessment of reactor physics computer codes. Considerable effort was devoted to benchmark calculations as a part of the HTR-PROTEUS program. References 1 and 2 provide detailed data for use in constructing models for codes to be assessed. Reference 3 is a comprehensive summary of the HTR-PROTEUS experiments and the associated benchmark program. This document draws freely from these references.