Imperial College London
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DrChrisCooling

Central Faculty, Graduate School

Senior Teaching Fellow- Programming Skills Lead
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 1251c.cooling10

 
 
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Location

 

Sherfield BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Jones:2022:10.1016/j.anucene.2021.108796,
author = {Jones, GS and Winter, GE and Cooling, CM and Williams, MMR and Eaton, MD},
doi = {10.1016/j.anucene.2021.108796},
journal = {Annals of Nuclear Energy},
pages = {1--31},
title = {Mathematical and computational models for simulating transient nuclear criticality excursions within wetted fissile powder systems},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2021.108796},
volume = {169},
year = {2022}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - This paper describes a novel methodology for the analysis of nuclear criticality excursions in fissile powder beds under wetting conditions. These potentially hazardous powder, slurry and sludge systems maybe found in nuclear fuel manufacturing and fabrication facilities. A point neutron kinetics model was coupled with water infiltration, thermal–hydraulics and radiolysis models through the use of reactivity feedbacks. Good agreement in the water infiltration rate was found when comparing the water infiltrationmodel used in this paper to experiments conducted by the French Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomiqueet aux Énergies Alternatives (CEA). A case study was proposed whereby a sheet of fine water dropletsfrom a sprinkler system came into contact with an open-topped bed of low enriched UO2 powder.Simulations indicate that the mean powder particle size had a strong effect on the time required forthe water to percolate through the powder bed. Powder particle size was also predicted to have a moderate effect on the initial fission power spike. The fission energy released over the first 300 s of the nuclearcriticality transient ranged from 65:28 MJ to 97:98 MJ depending on mean powder particle size. This issimilar in magnitude to other simulated nuclear criticality excursions in powder beds. The model predictsthat the initial fission power spike would be limited by the production of radiolytic gas and to a lesserextent the effects of Doppler broadening and thermal expansion. As expected, boiling and the associatedsteam production, was found to be an important phenomenon in the reduction of the fission rate throughthe negative void reactivity effect of the steam.
AU  - Jones,GS
AU  - Winter,GE
AU  - Cooling,CM
AU  - Williams,MMR
AU  - Eaton,MD
DO  - 10.1016/j.anucene.2021.108796
EP  - 31
PY  - 2022///
SN  - 0306-4549
SP  - 1
TI  - Mathematical and computational models for simulating transient nuclear criticality excursions within wetted fissile powder systems
T2  - Annals of Nuclear Energy
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2021.108796
UR  - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306454921006733?via%3Dihub
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/93696
VL  - 169
ER  -
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