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MARVEL team shares lessons learned through microreactor development
On June 1 at the American Nuclear Society’s Annual Conference in Denver, Colo., a team from Idaho National Laboratory presented a session titled “Lessons Learned from MARVEL Reactor Fabrication.” The presentation highlighted challenges that arose as they moved from design to manufacturing and assembly, with a focus on reactor part fabrication, Stirling engine implementation, and reactivity control system development.
Jason Chao, V. K. Chexal, William H. Layman, Gary Vine, Peter J. Jensen, Adi R. Dastur
Nuclear Technology | Volume 83 | Number 3 | December 1988 | Pages 289-301
Technical Paper | Fifth International Retran Meeting / Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT88-A34142
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The two power peaks during the Chernobyl accident were analyzed using the system thermal-hydraulic code RETRAN-02. The time and magnitude of the first power peak predicted by the RETRAN model compared well with the data presented by the Soviets. The analysis also revealed that one of the contributing factors to the second power peak was the depressurization of the system. Depressurization occurred upon rupture of the pressure boundary, which was caused by the first power peak. The depressurization of the system generated more voids, resulting in additional reactivity insertion, which produced a second peak. A parametric study showed that the positive reactivity introduced by the scram rods and the reactivity caused by the positive void coefficient were both important in contributing to the accident.