Title: Thermal behaviour of the IPR-R1 TRIGA nuclear reactor

Authors: Amir Zacarias Mesquita, Hugo Cesar Rezende

Addresses: Reactor and Irradiation Service, Centre of Nuclear Technology Development, Campus da UFMG – Pampulha – Caixa Postal 941, 30123–970, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil. ' Reactors and System Engineering Service, Centre of Nuclear Technology Development, Campus da UFMG – Pampulha – Caixa Postal 941, 30123–970, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil

Abstract: Experimental and analytical studies have been performed at the Nuclear Technology Development Center – CDTN (Belo Horizonte) to find out the temperature distribution in the IPR-R1 TRIGA Research Nuclear Reactor, as a function of power and position in the reactor core. The basic safety limit for the TRIGA reactor system is the fuel temperature, both in steady-state and pulsed mode operation. The time dependence of temperature will not be considered here, hence only the steady-state temperature profile will be studied. The experimental results for fuel and coolant temperatures in the reactor core, at different reactor power levels, have been compared with theoretical data and some results from other TRIGA reactors.

Keywords: temperature distribution; heat transfer; nuclear fuel rods; natural circulation; subcooled nucleate boiling; instrumented fuel elements; TRIGA reactor; Brazil; thermal behaviour; fuel temperatures; coolant temperatures; reactor core; nuclear reactors; nuclear technology; nuclear power; nuclear energy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNEST.2007.014653

International Journal of Nuclear Energy Science and Technology, 2007 Vol.3 No.2, pp.160 - 169

Published online: 23 Jul 2007 *

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