Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
2002 International RERTR Meeting
CALCULATION-MEASUREMENT COMPARISON FOR CONTROL RODS REACTIVITY IN RA-3 NUCLEAR REACTOR
Lic. Guillermo Estryk Lic. Angel Gomez
ABSTRACT
The RA-3 Nuclear Reactor of the Atomic Energy National Commission from Argentina, begun working with high enrichment fuel elements in 1967, and turned to low enrichment by 1990.
During 1999 it was found out that several fuel elements had problems, so more than 50 % of them had to be removed from the core. Because of this, it was planned to go from core 93 to core 94 with special care from nuclear safety point of view. Core 94 was preceded by other five, T-1 to T-5, only as transitory ones. The care implied several nuclear parameters measurements: core reactivity excess, calibration of control rods, etc.
Calculations were performed afterwards to simulate those measurements using the neutron diffusion code PUMA. The comparison shows a good agreement for more than 80% of the cases with differences lower than 10% in reactivity. The greatest differences were found in the last part of the control rods calibration and a better calculation of cell constants is planned to be done in order to improve the adjustment.
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Contact:
Mr. Guillermo Estryk
In charge of the Physics Laboratory in the RA-3 Reactor
CNEA-CAE
Avda. del Libertador 8250
C1429BNO Buenos Aires, Argentina
Phone: (54 11) 4379 8314
Fax: (54 11) 4379 8282
E-mail: estryk@cnea.gov.ar
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