CONTROL ROD CALIBRATION OF NIGERIA RESEARCH REACTOR -1 (NIRR-1) USING POSITIVE PERIOD METHOD

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dc.contributor.authorASUKU, ABDULSAMAD
dc.date.accessioned2016-04-06T09:38:28Z
dc.date.available2016-04-06T09:38:28Z
dc.date.issued2015-07
dc.descriptionA THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF A MASTER DEGREE IN NUCLEAR PHYSICS. DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS, FACULTY OF SCIENCE AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA NIGERIAen_US
dc.description.abstractCalibration of control rod has become an essential tool for measuring the reactivity changes in a reactor. The Positive Period Method of control rod calibration was shown to be a relatively independent, more accurate and well suited to the core configuration and control rod mechanism of low power reactors. The Nigeria Research Reactor-1 (NIRR-1) is a low power Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR). In this work, NIRR-1 control rod was calibrated from 107mm to 177mm withdrawal length at a low flux of 5 x 109 ncm2s-1. This flux and length was chosen to contain effects on reactivity due to temperature variation. Doubling times measurements were carried out in conjunction with the “Inhour” data to obtain reactor periods and their corresponding reactivities. The integral reactivities obtained were plotted against control rod withdrawal positions. The plot was compared with the s-shape integral curve earlier obtained for NIRR-1 during the zero power experiments in China and the two figures were found to be in agreement. The integral rod worth of (3.34) mk obtained here was also compared with the in-built full rod length total reactivity worth of 7mk and was found to have accounted for 47.8% of the length. This result is an indication that 10mm withdrawal length is approximately equivalent to 0.56mk reactivity insertion and the length used here is the most reactive portion of the control rod. It also shows that only 30% of the control rod length is required to achieve the characteristic s-shape curve using the positive period method. The uncertainty of 3.29% obtained in the integral rod worth is found to be within the margin of experimental results. This has satisfied the safety requirements of MNSR for shutdown margin. Our work has demonstrated that routine calibration of the MNSR control rod via positive period method is possible and satisfied all safety requirements, and thus recommended.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/7611
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subjectCONTROL ROD CALIBRATION,en_US
dc.subjectNIGERIA RESEARCH REACTOR -1 (NIRR-1),en_US
dc.subjectPOSITIVE PERIOD METHOD,en_US
dc.titleCONTROL ROD CALIBRATION OF NIGERIA RESEARCH REACTOR -1 (NIRR-1) USING POSITIVE PERIOD METHODen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
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