A neutronic and thermal hydraulic analysis of the 1-MW TRIGA research reactor at the Texas A&M University Nuclear Science Center using a new low enriched uranium fuel (named 30/20 fuel) was completed. This analysis provides safety assessment for the change out of the existing high enriched uranium fuel to this high-burnup, low enriched uranium fuel design. The codes MCNP and Monteburns were utilized for the neutronic analysis while the code PARET was used to determine fuel and cladding temperatures. All of these simulations used improved zirconium hydride cross sections that were provided by Dr. Ayman Hawari at North Carolina State University. The neutronic and thermal analysis showed that the reactor will operate with approximately the same fuel lifetime as the current high enriched uranium fuel and stay within the thermal and safety limits for the facility. It was also determined that the control rod worths and the temperature coefficient of reactivity would provide sufficient negative reactivity to control the reactor during the fuel’s complete lifetime. An assessment of the fuel’s viability for use with the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative’s Reactor Accelerator Coupling Experiments program was also performed. The objective of this study was to confirm the continued viability of these experiments with the reactor operating using this new fuel. For these experiments, the accelerator driven system must produce fission heating in excess of 1 kW when driven by a 20 kW accelerator system. This criterion was met using the new fuel. Therefore the change out of the fuel will not affect the viability of these experiments.

Orientador: Elias Basile Tambourgi / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Quimica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-08T03:22:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Franco_MiltonBatista_D.pdf: 5657387 bytes, checksum: 9e99cd3d82f91d042547d9255ae0b274 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: Este trabalho teve como objetivo determinar os parâmetros f, a, índice espectral e temperatura de nêutrons na mesa (parada e girando) e no tubo central do REATOR IPR-R1, visando a aplicação da técnica de ativação neutrônica paramétrica ko. É um método monopadrão de análise química por ativação neutrônica de aplicação bastante geral que elimina preparações tediosas de curvas de padrões, com capacidade analítica quantitativa multielementar e com uma exatidão comparável ao método relativo clássico¿Observação: O resumo, na íntegra poderá ser visualizado no texto completo da tese digital / Abstract: This research intended to determine the nuclear parameters a, f, spectral index and neutron temperature in several irradiations positions of the TRIGA MARK I IPR-R1 reactor, for use on the parametric method ko in the CDTN. Ko is a monostandard method of neutron activation analysis. It is, on the whole, experimentally simple, flexible and an important tool for accurate and convenient standardization in instrumental multi-element analysis...Note: The complete abstract is available with the full electronic digital thesis or dissertations / Doutorado / Sistemas de Processos Quimicos e Informatica / Doutor em Engenharia Química