Spert Project Quarterly Technical Report, January-March 1963 (open access)

Spert Project Quarterly Technical Report, January-March 1963

Additional data from the 3.2-msec-period destructive test were analyzed. Recovery and cleanup operations in the Spert I area were completed. Each of the 270 highly enriched, aluminum-clad fuel plates in the core was found to have experienced melting to some degree. The available data on the nature of the pressure pulse and on the condition of the core fuel plates at the time of the pulse are consistent with the hypothesis that the observed destructive effects were produced by a self-propagating steam explosion resulting from the dispersal of molten fuel plates into the water throughout the core. A series of tests was initiated to determine the response of the Spert IV plate-type core to step- inputs of reactivity at ambient temperature, for various initial system conditions of hydrostatic head above the core, and forced coolant circulation rate. Power excursion tests with initial reactor periods in the range from 1 sec to 8.5 msec were performed with an 18-ft hydrostatic head above the core and no forced coolant circulation. Tests with periods of 20, 12, and 8.5 msec were also performed with a 2-ft head. No significant change was observed in the peak power, power burst shape, energy release, or transient …
Date: May 20, 1963
Creator: Schroeder, F. ed.
System: The UNT Digital Library