Experiments were performed to establish the critical heat flux (CHF) characteristics of heavy water and light water. Testing was performed with the up-flow of heavy and of light water within a 0.3744 inch inside diameter circular tube with 72.3 inches of heated length. Comparisons were made between heavy water and light water critical heat flux levels for the same local equilibrium quality at CHF, operating pressure, and nominal mass velocity. Results showed that heavy water CHF values were, on the average, 8 percent below the light water CHF values.

A number of water-moderated Th-U235 and Th-U233 lattice integral experiments were analyzed in a consistent manner, with ENDF/B-IV data and detailed Monte Carlo methods. These experiments provide a consistent test of the nuclear data. The ENDF/B-IV data are found to perform reasonably well. Adequate agreement is found with integral measurements of thorium capture. Calculated K/sub eff/ values show a generally coherent pattern which is consistent with K/sub eff/ results obtained for homogeneous aqueous critical assemblies. Harder prompt fission spectra for U233 and U235 can correct the principal discrepancy observed with ENDF/B-IV, a bias trend in K/sub eff/ attributed to an underprediction of leakage.

A survey is made of existing integral experiments for U233 systems and thorium-uranium based fuel systems. The aim is to understand to what extent they give a consistent test of ENDF/B-IV nuclear data. A principal result is that ENDF/B-IV leads to an underprediction of neutron leakage. Results from testing alternate thorium data sets are presented. For one evaluation due to Leonard, the results depict a possible growing discrepancy between measured integral parameters such as rho/sup 02/ and I/sup 232/ and the differential data, which underpredicts these parameters. Sensitivities to other nuclear data components, notably the fission neutron spectrum, were determined. A new harder U233 spectrum significantly reduces a bias trend in K/sub eff/ vs leakage.

The successive collision method for calculating resonance absorption solves numerically the neutron slowing down problem in reactor lattices. A discrete energy mesh is used with cross sections taken from a Monte Carlo library. The major physical approximations used are isotropic scattering in both the laboratory and center-of-mass systems. This procedure is intended for day-to-day analysis calculations and has been incorporated into the current version of MUFT. The calculational model used for the analysis of the nuclear performance of LWBR includes this resonance absorption procedure. Test comparisons of results with RCPO1 give very good agreement.

A thermomechanical theory of large deformation elastic-inelastic material behavior is developed which is based on a multiplicative decomposition of the strain. Very general assumptions are made for the elastic and inelastic constitutive relations and effects such as thermally-activated creep, fast-neutron-flux-induced creep and growth, annealing, and strain recovery are compatible with the theory. Reduced forms of the constitutive equations are derived by use of the second law of thermodynamics in the form of the Clausius-Duhem inequality. Observer invariant equations are derived by use of an invariance principle which is a generalization of the principle of material frame indifference.