Conclusions
The experiments were the first check on values of the temperature and power reactivity effects and the depletion effect for a fast power reactor. These results and their theoretical analysis enable us to estimate the reactivity balance in a BN-350 reactor, and to check and refine the methods of calculation. The models and methods used for calculations in designing fast power reactors turned out to be effective and gave quite satisfactory results.
Calculations of the temperature and power reactivity effects somewhat underestimate their values (by ≈15%). The largest error in the temperature effect comes from the Doppler and sodium components, and in the power effect from the Doppler effect and the indeterminacy in temperature field calculations.
Calculations give a fairly good estimate of the depletion effect also, although in this case obvious care has to be exercised in choosing the method of calculation. This fact is connected with the necessity of correctly allowing for nonuniformity of fuel depletion and the accumulation of plutonium.
Investigation of the reactivity effect for prolonged use of the reactor is of great practical and theoretical interest. The effect of depletion and change in structure of the fuel pellets on the temperature and power effects, the nonlinear nature of the power effect, and the influence of plutonium accumulation on the reactivity effects in the reactor, all these are questions of reactor physics the study of which allows us to increase the accuracy of physical calculations in designing fast power reactors.
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Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 3–8, January, 1977.
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Orlov, V.V., Troyanov, M.F., Matveev, V.I. et al. Reactivity effects in a BN-350 reactor. At Energy 42, 1–6 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01119689
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01119689