Comprehensive Experiments on Subcritical Assemblies of Cascade Reactor Systems
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nsive Experiments on Subcritical Assemblies of Cascade Reactor Systems N. V. Zavyalov, R. I. Il’kaev, V. F. Kolesov*, I. A. Ivanin, A. K. Zhitnik, M. I. Kuvshinov, Yu. Ya. Nefedov, V. T. Punin, A. V. Tel’nov, and V. Kh. Khoruzhi Russian Federal Nuclear Center—All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics, Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod oblast, 607190 Russia *e-mail: [email protected] Received June 10, 2016
Abstract—Cascade reactors attract particular attention because of their capability of improving the parameters of pulsed reactors and achieving the feasibility of electronuclear facilities. The paper presents the results of three series of experiments on uranium-neptunium cascade assemblies at the Institute of Nuclear and Radiation Physics of the All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics conducted in 2003–2004. The experiments confirmed theoretical conclusions on positive properties of cascade blankets and effectiveness of using neptunium-237 as a means of creating a one-sided connection between the sections. Keywords: cascade reactor, cascade blanket, pulsed reactor, neptunium-237, electronuclear facility, reactor experiment DOI: 10.1134/S1063778817080166
A reactor can be called a coupled (two-section) reactor if its core consists of two sections that differ in composition, shape, and geometrical dimensions or are spatially separated and a certain portion of fissions at least in one part of the core are caused by neutrons resulting from fission in the other part. The two-section reactors with one-sided or predominantly one-sided neutron connection between the sections are termed cascade reactors. This is the case when the neutrons of one section influence the chain reaction in the other section, while the neutrons of the second section do not influence the chain reaction in the first section. Cascade reactors have been known since the 1950s [1]. The great interest in these facilities that has been observed since the 1980s was caused by their ability to considerably improve the parameters of pulsed reactors and the technical feasibility of electronuclear facilities (ENFs). A substantial, one could say, fundamental contribution to the development of the cascade reactor concept was made by researchers at the Institute of Nuclear and Radiation Physics (IYaRF) of the AllRussian Research Institute of Experimental Physics (VNIIEF). The participation of this institution in the work resulted in the following [2]: (1) Introduction and theoretical substantiation of cascade pulsed reactors and boosters, in particular, such types of these facilities that use neptunium-237, a threshold fissionable substance, as the material of one
of the sections. It appeared that the use of the cascade principle in the reactor offered the possibility of reducing the pulse duration by many times. (2) Extending the cascade principle to the ENF blankets, i.e., to subcritical reactors that operate in combination with high-power proton accelerators. One of the major obstacles to creation of ENFs is overly high requirements on
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