EBR-II Dry Critical Experiments: Experimental Program, Experimental Procedures and Safety Considerations

Koch, L.J.; Loewenstein, W.B.; Lovoff, A.; Hooker, H.H.; Monson, H.O.; Ramp, R.L.; Hutter, E.

doi:10.2172/4792972

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In April of 1961, before EBR-II was used as a power producing or breeding facility, it underwent a series of zero power experiments (designated as less than 1 kW of power) before the primary system was filled with sodium [8][9][10]. To perform the dry critical experiment, fuel and blanket assemblies that would be used for normal operations were loaded into the core in a similar configuration to when sodium would be added.…”

Section: Dry/wet Critical Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Breeder Reactor II

Pope¹,

Stewart²,

Lum³

2022

Nuclear Reactors - Spacecraft Propulsion, Research Reactors, and Reactor Analysis Topics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) operated from 1964 to 1994. EBR-II was a sodium-cooled fast reactor operating at 69 MWth producing 19 MWe. Rather than using a loop approach for the coolant, EBR-II used a pool arrangement where the reactor core, primary coolant piping, and primary reactor coolant pumps were contained within the pool of sodium. Also contained within the pool was a heat exchanger where primary coolant, which is radioactive, transferred heat to secondary, nonradioactive, sodium. The nuclear power plant included a sodium boiler building where heat from the secondary sodium generated superheated steam, which was delivered to a turbine/generator for electricity production. EBR-II fuel was metallic uranium alloyed with various metals providing significant performance and safety enhancements over oxide fuel. The most significant EBR-II experiments occurred in April 1986. Relying on inherent physical properties of the reactor, two experiments were performed subjecting the reactor to loss of primary coolant flow without reactor SCRAM and loss of the secondary system heat removal without reactor SCRAM. In both experiments, the reactor experienced no damage. This chapter provides a description of the most important design features of EBR-II along with a summary of the landmark reactor safety experiments.

show abstract

Section: Dry/wet Critical Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%