Book Description

Two experiments were designed and built, in preparation for the measurement of transient steam void formation and extreme pressure pulses during severe power excursions under reactor-like conditions. The preparations for an inpile capsule experiment to be carried out using the KEWB reactor as a source of pulsed neutrons are described. The water-filled capsule, exposed to neutron flux, will contain a uranium-bearing plate. Transient heating of the plate will produce a surface temperature transient which is characteristic of a severe power excursion in a heterogeneous water reactor. Measurements of steam formation rates will be applicable to the destructive transients presently underway in the SPERT-I reactor. The second experiment is an out-of-pile apparatus in which an attempt will be made to create severe pressure transients by causing the temperature of a surface to rise rapidly through the thermodynamic critical point of water. Studies related to boiling-water reactor stability were continued. Transfer function and steam void fraction distribution measurements were made. An analysis indicated that a multi-channel natural circulation boiling system may have two modes of hydrodynamic instability. (M.C.G.).