The Aircraft Reactor Experiment—Operation

Bettis, E.S.; Cottrell, W.B.; Mann, E.R.; Meem, J.L.; Whitman, G.D.

doi:10.13182/nse57-a35497

Cited by 50 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…The ARE operated with NaF-ZrF 4 -UF 4 fuel and a sodium circuit [17]. While the reactor operated for only approximately 9 days in 1954, the fuel system was in operation for 462 h [18]. The ARE included one fuel pump (DAC model) and one sodium pump (DANA model) as well as a backup pump for each.…”

Section: Reactor Operation Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

High-Temperature Salt Pump Review and Guidelines - Phase I Report

Robb¹,

Jain²,

Hazelwood³

2016

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Section: Reactor Operation Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

High-Temperature Salt Pump Review and Guidelines - Phase I Report

Robb¹,

Jain²,

Hazelwood³

2016

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“…Meanwhile, in the 1950's -1980's, a variety of concepts were developed and tested for compact, high temperature, fission reactors operating at very high power density [6][7][8][9]. Many of these reactors were developed for the space program, either as high power, space-based power supplies in the range 10's-of-kW th to 10's-MW th , or for nuclear propulsion at thermal powers of 100's to 1000's of WM th .…”

Section: Concept Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Approach for the Permanent Disposal of Long Lived Fission Waste

Perkins¹

2007

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Nuclear fission is capable of meeting global needs for carbon-free energy for millennia. However, the siting and implementation of waste repositories for spent fuel is becoming increasingly problematic from a financial and political perspective. We have performed initial studies of a novel concept for the permanent disposal of longlived fission waste, where "permanent" is defined as being on the billion-year time scale. The concept employs the heat from a compact, high-power-density fission reactor to melt a self-sealing channel, tens of kilometers down into the continental lithosphere. Partitioned long-lived fission waste is packaged at the rear of the device that melts its way through the rock at a descent rate set by the achievable reactor power density. The waste would be irretrievable and cannot return to the biosphere. Monitoring and longterm integrity of waste containers would not be required and disposal costs should be <1% of the cost-of-electricity. Design concepts for the reactor and the principle of molten rock boring are based on existing experimental and operational data.

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“…The pressure shell was composed of a 2-inch-thick (5 cm) Inconel sheet fabricated into a cylindrical shape with a longitudinal Heliarc weld and with heads welded on by the Heliarc welding technique. 4 The pressure shell was designed to ensure that thermal stress would not exceed 3000 psi (20 MPa). This required that the flat heads be reinforced to 4 in.…”

Section: The Reactormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The computed critical mass and the preliminary critical experiments associated with the experiment are discussed in the following paper (3), as is the batch method of adding uranium to bring the reactor to criticality (4). A brief description of the control and instrumentation hardware is given here.…”

Section: The Control Roommentioning

confidence: 99%

The Aircraft Reactor Experiment—Design and Construction

Bettis

Schroeder

Cristy

et al. 1957

Nuclear Science and Engineering

Self Cite

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The Aircraft Reactor Experiment was designed for operation at temperatures in the region of 1500ºF (1100 K) at a power of 1-3 MWt with a fluoride-salt fuel circulating in a heterogeneous core. The moderator was hot-pressed BeO blocks cooled by circulating sodium. The heat produced was dissipated in water through hot liquid-to-helium-to-water heat exchange systems. All sodium and fuel circuit components were made of Inconel fabricated by inert-gas (Heliarc) welding. The system was heated to design temperature by means of electrical heating units applied over all parts of the system. Instrumentation and control of the experiment were fairly conventional. For the most part, standard instruments were modified slightly for the hightemperature application. The reactor system was constructed and operated in a building specifically provided for the purpose.The Aircraft Reactor Experiment (ARE) to be described in this paper was originally conceived in a very different form from that in which it was ultimately constructed. In fact, the original high-temperature reactor design did not employ a fluoride-salt fuel, and, in order to understand some of the features incorporated in the ARE, a certain amount of historical background is necessary.By 1950, at various places in the country, work had progressed on the handling of hightemperature sodium metal to the point that it was being seriously considered as a coolant for nuclear reactors. Accordingly, a group of engineers and physicists at ORNL started design work on a solid-fuel-pin sodium-cooled reactor, with the fuel consisting of 235 U (as UO 2 ) canned in stainless steel. It was decided to make this a thermal reactor and to use BeO blocks as the moderator. The circulating sodium was to extract heat from the fuel pins and at the same time to remove heat from the moderator blocks. The design of this solid-fuel-pin, BeO-moderated, sodium-cooled reactor proceeded to the point of purchase of the BeO moderator blocks. These blocks, as fabricated for the original reactor design, are shown in Figure 1.The solid-fuel-pin thermal reactor design was found to possess a serious difficulty when the design concept was projected to cover a relatively high-power reactor. The problem was the positive temperature coefficient of reactivity associated with the cross section of xenon at elevated temperatures. This xenon instability was considered to be serious enough to warrant abandoning the solid-fuel design concept, because of the exacting requirement placed on any automatic control system by this instability.An obvious way to avoid the control problem would be to incorporate a liquid fuel that would have a large density change for a given change in temperature. If, upon heating and expanding, a portion of the fuel could, in effect, be made to leave the critical lattice, a selfstabilizing reactor would result.

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The Aircraft Reactor Experiment—Operation

Cited by 50 publications

References 2 publications

High-Temperature Salt Pump Review and Guidelines - Phase I Report

High-Temperature Salt Pump Review and Guidelines - Phase I Report

A New Approach for the Permanent Disposal of Long Lived Fission Waste

The Aircraft Reactor Experiment—Design and Construction

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