TRIGA Mark II Criticality Benchmark Experiment with Burned Fuel

The experimental results of criticality benchmark experiments performed at the Jozef Stefan Institute TRIGA Mark II reactor are presented. The experiments were performed with partly burned fuel in two compact and uniform core configurations in the same arrangements as were used in the fresh fuel criticality benchmark experiment performed in 1991. In the experiments, both core configurations contained only 12 wt% U-ZrH fuel with 20% enriched uranium. The first experimental core contained 43 fuel elements with average burnup of 1.22 MWd or 2.8% ²³⁵U burned. The last experimental core configuration was composed of 48 fuel elements with average burnup of 1.15 MWd or 2.6% ²³⁵U burned. The experimental determination of k_eff for both core configurations, one subcritical and one critical, are presented. Burnup for all fuel elements was calculated in two-dimensional four-group diffusion approximation using the TRIGLAV code. The burnup of several fuel elements was measured also by the reactivity method.