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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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New coolants, new fuels: A new generation of university reactors
Here’s an easy way to make aging U.S. power reactors look relatively youthful: Compare them (average age: 43) with the nation’s university research reactors. The 25 operating today have been licensed for an average of about 58 years.
Michael J. Lineberry, Harold F. McFarlane, Peter J. Collins, Stuart G. Carpenter
Nuclear Technology | Volume 44 | Number 1 | June 1979 | Pages 21-43
Technical Paper | Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT79-A32236
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The first physics measurements for a heterogeneous design of a 1000-MW(thermal) liquid-metal fast breeder reactor were made in the Zero Power Plutonium Reactor (ZPPR) during the last half of 1976. This benchmark assembly, ZPPR-7, had a central blanket zone as well as three internal blanket rings. Fuel zones had a single enrichment. Cores with heavy plutonium buildup in the internal blankets as well as cores with clean internal blankets were investigated. Such key physics parameters as keff, most of the important reaction rates, control rod worths, sodium void reactivity, and material worths were studied in the ZPPR-7 program. Results verified the gain in breeding that were predicted for the heterogeneous arrangement. When design-level calculations were used, calculated-to-experimental biases were different from those that had been found for homogeneous cores.