Massachusetts Institute of Technology Reactor LEU Fuel Element Flow Test Conceptual Design – Hydraulic Reactor Design Parameters

Abstract

The Laboratory's main facility is outside Chicago, at 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, Illinois 60439. For information about Argonne and its pioneering science and technology programs, see www.anl.gov.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Reactor LEU Fuel Element Flow Test Preliminary Design

“…In the MITR LEU fuel element flow test conceptual design [2,3], the following objectives have been achieved:…”

“…Created a conceptual design for the test vehicle (basket) intended for use in the flow test at Hydro-Mechanical Fuel Test Facility (HMFTF) [4]. Details of these activities are elaborated in [2,3].…”

“…The system pressure was maintained as close as possible to 150 psig and temperatures near the average coolant temperatures for the MITR. The flow rate was then slowly increased up to 120% of the reactor's nominal flow rate [2] with step sizes of approximately 10 gpm.…”

“…MITR hydraulic characteristics provided by Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) have been documented in [2], and are summarized in Table 3.1. These values were used to size an orifice plate per ISO 5167-2:2003, and this calculation is documented in [12].…”

“…The initial review of sensors for monitoring the structural response (deflections and oscillations) of the fuel plates under the hydrodynamic load has been performed in the flow test conceptual design stage [2,3]. Furthermore, sensors that could be useful for the MITR LEU fuel element flow testing have been identified, and a test matrix aiming at evaluating these sensors has been proposed.…”