37. Reactor Regulation and Control

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the reactor regulation and control. The chapter determines the reactivity worth of the regulating and control rods for a research or test reactor by various experimental methods. For control and safety purposes, and for varying the power level, control and regulating devices are required in every nuclear reactor. The control devices are solid, neutron-absorbing materials in the form of rods or plates. The control rods are operated either inside the core or near the reflector region. The control rods or control plates in watercooled reactors are located normally in interchangeable core positions. The safety of the whole reactor system depends on the amount of reactivity they control. The worth of an individual rod, or a bank of several rods can be measured in several different ways. The control rod worth measurement by rod drop method has two advantages; it measures the integral worth at once and this method may be applied, even if the excess reactivity of the core is small.