KEWB¿Radiation Burst Test Facility

Abstract

It is a well-established fact that brief pulses of intense radiation, such as those produced during a nuclear detonation, can disable, or cause serious malfunction of, most electronic systems even though they are located outside the thermal and shock destruction zones. This fact has given rise to the need for a device which can simulate the radiation environment accompanying a nuclear detonation. Coincidental with the evolution of this need, a family of nuclear reactors has been demonstrated as being capable of producing radiation bursts which, in all important respects, adequately simulate a nuclear weapon. These devices offer additional advantages over field tests involving actual detonation in that they may be operated on a routine repetitive basis at a much reduced cost and under carefully controlled laboratory conditions. The Kinetic Experiments on Water Boiler (KEWB) reactor has a demonstrated ability to perform in the capacity of a weapon simulator. This reactor is located in the Los Angeles area and is operated by Atomics International for the Atomic Energy Commission. Organizations executing Government contracts can take advantage of its availability if transient radiation resistance requirements are encountered during execution of their contract. The reactor is of the aqueous homogeneous type and produces the shortest duration pulse of any of the thermal neutron reactors operating today. Radiation pulses of varying widths down to 3.0 msec can be obtained with the assembly together with peak neutron and gamma intensities of 3 x 1016 neutrons/cm2-sec and operating today.