ESTIMATION OF POWER PEAKING FACTOR AND THERMAL LIMITATION ON CORE PERFORMANCE OF NIGERIA RESEARCH REACTOR-1 (NIRR-1)

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dc.contributor.authorSALISU, ANAS MUHAMMAD
dc.date.accessioned2017-01-30T13:47:33Z
dc.date.available2017-01-30T13:47:33Z
dc.date.issued2015-01
dc.descriptionA THESIS SUBMMITTED TO POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY ZARIA NIGERIA IN PARTIAL FULLFILMENT OF THE REQUIRMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF SCIENCE DEGREE IN NUCLEAR PHYSICS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ;PHYSICS FACULTY OF SCIENCE, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY , ZARIA NIGERIAen_US
dc.description.abstractThe Power Peaking Factor of a reactor is known to be the ratio of its peak heat flux to the average heat flux around its core. This parameter was reported to be the key value that dictates the maximum allowable power density of a fuel assembly. Investigation shows that reactor core performance largely depends on the power peaking factor. It was in recognition of the role of this importance parameter that measurements were performed to estimate the Power Peaking Factor and core performance of the Nigeria Research Reactor–1 (NIRR-1) core, which is Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR). Our results show that the Power Peaking Factor for a preset neutron flux of 5.0×1011 cm-2s-1 ranges from 0.707 ± 0.293 to 1.014 ± 0.014 which yielded an average value of the estimated power peaking factor to be lower than the expected value of 1.2 with more than 20%. The thermal limitation of NIRR-1 core was also obtained which have an average of 12.6˚C. This is an in-build feature of NIRR-1 that compensates for high negative temperature coefficient of reactivity in order to keep the reactor stable at its preset power level. This is in agreement with safety requirements of the MNSR which does not permit power excursion and occurrence of boiling. However, our results show that the reactor stability is not applicable during startup and shutdown conditions. It means that utilization of the Reactor must wait some few minutes after startup to achieve stability and must stop some few minute before the shutdown. The results also indicate the need to obtain a correction factor for samples that will stay in the reactor for cyclic or longer period of irradiation provided there will be shutdown and start-up in-between the irradiations. Our results also revealed that there is a strong dependence of the reactor power on coolant temperature and rod position, which is in perfect agreement with the design of the MNSR and findings of many workers in the area. The computer program developed in this work for the determination of power peaking factor using moderator parameters will not only serve as a new source code for microcomputer control of the reactor peak power, maximum power factor and flux distribution but will also make it possible for the microcomputer console to display real time peak power level, maximum power factor thermal limitation of the reactor core, a tool that is lacking in MNSR design.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/8579
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subjectESTIMATION,en_US
dc.subjectPOWER PEAKING FACTOR,en_US
dc.subjectTHERMAL LIMITATION,en_US
dc.subjectCORE PERFORMANCE,en_US
dc.subjectNIGERIA RESEARCH,en_US
dc.subjectREACTOR-1,en_US
dc.subject(NIRR-1),en_US
dc.titleESTIMATION OF POWER PEAKING FACTOR AND THERMAL LIMITATION ON CORE PERFORMANCE OF NIGERIA RESEARCH REACTOR-1 (NIRR-1)en_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
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