Criticality Safety of Low-Enriched Uranium and High-Enriched Uranium Fuel Elements in Heavy Water Lattices

Abstract

The RB reactor was designed as a natural-uranium, heavy water, nonreflected critical assembly in the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in 1958. From 1962 until 2002, numerous critical experiments were carried out with low-enriched uranium and high-enriched uranium fuel elements of tubular shape, known as the Russian TVR-S fuel assembly type, placed in various heavy water square lattices within the RB cylindrical aluminum tank. Some of these well-documented experiments were selected, described, evaluated, and accepted for inclusion in the “International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments,” contributing to the preservation of a rather small number of heavy water benchmark critical experiments.