TR-2 Reactor calculations
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Date
2000-10
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Turkish Atomic Energy Authority
Abstract
The preliminary design calculations for the TR-2 research reactor has been made at France in
1974. First criticality was achieved in Dec. 10th, 1981; with the available HEU fuels. It has been
operated at different power levels for different time intervals in the first cycle. After a 186.87
MWD’s of operation, the second cycle has begun. The Xe-poisoning problem has arised in the
second cycle after 80 MWD’s of operation. This problem has been solved by replacing two A1
blocks with two Be ref-lectors.
In the meantime, core conversion activities has been initiated with the investigation of
appropriate fuel type for the TR-2 reactor in 1980’s. All possible LEU fuel types have been
tested and optimization calculations have been covered for a new fuel design. The siliside fuels
have been chosen on basis of these various design calculations and the recent developments in
this type of fuels. No enlargement was necessary in the core loading, and especially, no
modification was needed in the fuel element geometry, since the density of the siliside fuels
could be very high.
Density search calculations has been carried out to find a suitable density for the new (siliside)
LEU fuels in order to achieve at least the same core performance obtained with the HEU fuels.
An uranium density of 4.8 g/cc was preferred among many possible choises because of
available production, which increased the core performance. 3D diffusion-bumup calculations
have been made with the HEU fuels to update the core status. Many equilibrium core designs
have been studied for the optimum utilization of the existing HEU and chosen LEU fuels.
Mixed and fully converted equilibrium core calculations have been performed. Some of the
LEU fuels have already been loaded to the TR-2 core without any operational or safety related
problems. The agreement between the calculations and the experiments are quite good for the
operated 13 cycles.
Description
I. Avrasya Nükleer Bilimler ve Uygulamaları Konferansı : 23-27 Ekim 2000. İzmir, Türkiye.
Keywords
Nuclear reactors, Nükleer reaktörler, TR-2 reactor, TR-2 reaktörü, Calculations, Hesaplamalar
Citation
Turgut, M. H., (2000). TR-2 Reactor calculations. I. Eurasia Conference on Nuclear Science and Its Application, Presentations, Vol 1, (s. 362-370). 23-27 October 2000. İzmir, Turkey.