Journal of Nuclear Energy Science & Power Generation TechnologyISSN: 2325-9809

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Experimental and Theoretical Study for the Effects of Different Reflector Types on the Neutronic Parameters of the MNSR Reactor

Nowadays, most research reactors utilizing highly enriched uranium fuel are planned to be converted to use low enriched uranium fuel. As a result of the conversion, the neutron thermal flux (?th) decreased by 10%. Such lose in the neutron flux can be compensated by introducing a suitable reflector material around the reactor core. Three different type of reflectors have been investigated, graphite, heavy water and light water. The effect of each type on the reactivity and ?th distribution was investigate by monitoring the reactor parameters after inserting containers filled with a reflector material inside inner irradiation site. Furthermore, a theoretical analyses study has been conducted using the MCNP4C code. The analyses revealed that theoretical and experimental values are comparable. Our results indicate that graphite is the most preferred mateial among the studied reflector groups. The ?th in the Inner Irradiation Tube (IIT) was increased by 12, 11, and 2% for graphite, light water and heavy water, respectively. Moreover, heavy water introduced the highest reactor reactivity, 0.6 mk, followed by light water and graphite with the values: 0.323, and 0.127 mk, respectively. Finally, the graphite reflector can be a suitable reflector, since it compensates the decreasing in the ?th with minimum effect on the core reactivity.

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