Analysis of Credible Accidents for Argonaut Reactors

Five areas of potential accidents have been evaluated for the Argonaut-UTR reactors. They are: • insertion of excess reactivity • catastrophic rearrangement of the core • explosive chemical reaction • graphite fire • fuel-handling accident. A nuclear excursion resulting from the rapid insertion of the maximum available excess reactivity would produce only 12 MWs which is insufficient to cause fuel melting even with conservative assumptions. Although precise structural rearrangement of the core would create a potential hazard, it is simply not credible to assume that such an arrangement would result from the forces of an earthquake or other catastrophic event. Even damage to the fuel from falling debris or other objects is unlikely given the normal reactor structure. An explosion from a metal-water reaction could not occur because there is no credible source of sufficient energy to initiate the reaction. A graphite fire could conceivably create some damage to the reactor but not enough to melt any fuel or initiate a metal-water reaction. The only credible accident involving offsite doses was determined to be a fuel-handling accident which, given highly conservative assumptions, would produce a whole-body dose equivalent of 2 rem from noble gas immersion and a lifetime dose equivalent commitment to the thyroid of 43 rem from radioiodines

Rationale and Architecture Principles for Medical Application Platforms

The concept of “system of systems” architecture is increasingly prevalent in many critical domains. Such systems allow information to be pulled from a variety of sources, analyzed to discover correlations and trends, stored to enable realtime and post-hoc assessment, mined to better inform decisionmaking, and leveraged to automate control of system units. In contrast, medical devices typically have been developed as monolithic stand-alone units. However, a vision is emerging of a notion of a medical application platform (MAP) that would provide device and health information systems (HIS) interoperability, safety critical network middleware, and an execution environment for clinical applications (“apps”) that offer numerous advantages for safety and effectiveness in health care delivery. In this paper, we present the clinical safety/effectiveness and economic motivations for MAPs, and describe key characteristics of MAPs that are guiding the search for appropriate technology, regulatory, and ecosystem solutions. We give an overview of the Integrated Clinical Environment (ICE) – one particular achitecture for MAPs, and the Medical Device Coordination Framework – a prototype implementation of the ICE architecture

General Electric Atomic Power Equipment Department Report GEAP-4385

A research program is being conducted to obtain experimental data in the irradiation of plutonium-enriched fuel to confirm a theoretical model for predicting isotopic composition and reactivity changes in plutonium-enriched, light-water-moderated reactors. Quarterly progress: The densitometry procedure (for measurement of alpha autoradiographs of fuel pellets) has been modified to eliminate the need for a second emulsion. The existence of a problem of latent image fading and non-reciprocity of the high-resolution emulsion has been recognized. A tentative procedure has been worked out to correct these emulsion difficulties. the number of polished pellets has been increased to thirteen. The number of hot spots per pellet has not changed appreciably. The largest spot seen is irregular with an estimated volume equivalent to that of a sphere of 35 mil diameter with a PuO2 concentration in the neighborhood of 60%. The VBWR irradiation run now under way is not scheduled to end until October. To the end of the last run the cumulative exposure reached 3703 MWD/T, as logged by VBWR operating personnel. Applying the same scale factor between logged exposure and Ce-Cs analysis of the first fuel sample gives a corrected exposure of 4416 MWD/T. Further debugging of EPITHERMOS, the epithermal extension of the BNL THERMOS code, is in progress. A flux wire exposure is being prepared to map the thermal neutron spectrum in the neighborhood of the test pins in the program fuel element

Program for the Development of Plutonium Recycle for Use in Light-Water- Moderated Reactors. Eleventh Quarterly Report, October 1-December 31, 1963

A research program is being conducted to obtain experimental data in the irradiation of plutonium-enriched fuel to confirm a theoretical model for predicting isotopic composition and reactivity changes in plutonium-enriched, light-water-moderated reactors. Autoradiographs of unirradiated fuel indicated approximates 10% microsegregation of the PuO/sub 2/. The irradiations of flux wires and the project fuel element in VBWR are described; the fuel element was removed after approximates 5000 Mwd/t burnup when VBWR operation was stopped in Dec. 1963. Progress on the EPITHERMOS code is described. (D.L.C.

Analysis of Credible Accidents for Argonaut Reactors

Five areas of potential accidents have been evaluated for the Argonaut-UTR reactors. They are: • insertion of excess reactivity • catastrophic rearrangement of the core • explosive chemical reaction • graphite fire • fuel-handling accident. A nuclear excursion resulting from the rapid insertion of the maximum available excess reactivity would produce only 12 MWs which is insufficient to cause fuel melting even with conservative assumptions. Although precise structural rearrangement of the core would create a potential hazard, it is simply not credible to assume that such an arrangement would result from the forces of an earthquake or other catastrophic event. Even damage to the fuel from falling debris or other objects is unlikely given the normal reactor structure. An explosion from a metal-water reaction could not occur because there is no credible source of sufficient energy to initiate the reaction. A graphite fire could conceivably create some damage to the reactor but not enough to melt any fuel or initiate a metal-water reaction. The only credible accident involving offsite doses was determined to be a fuel-handling accident which, given highly conservative assumptions, would produce a whole-body dose equivalent of 2 rem from noble gas immersion and a lifetime dose equivalent commitment to the thyroid of 43 rem from radioiodines

General Electric Company Atomic Power Report GEAP-4051

The Program fuel element has continued under irradiation in the Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor, thermal energy group transfer cross sections for UO2 have been computed, and data have been reduced from the resonance wire activations performed last quarter. Future plans are included