| Abstract: | Four air filled beam tubes are present in the small pool type 233U fuelled, BeO and water reflected neutron source reactor KAMINI under construction in IGCAR, Kalpakkam. The positive reactivity insertion possible due to the accidental ingress of surrounding water into these empty beam tubes was estimated using the 3-D transport code TRITAC. To save computer time and also to highlight the effects caused by filling of air gaps with water, a similar but symmetrical core with more beam tubes was also studied in detail. Microscopic cross sections were derived from WIMS library and assembly homogenization was performed using a computer code SMAXY. Condensed eight group cross sections were used in TRITAC. During the study reported here, need was found for the use of tight flux convergence criterion in TRITAC for getting reliable estimates of air to water worths. From the study of the symmetrical core, it is found that the presence of outer water reflector significantly reduces the air to water worth of these beam tubes. Further, the air to water worth of these beam tubes is quite small when the region where water replaces air is, beyond 15 cm from core boundary. Thus it is inferred that the total air to water worth of all beam tubes in the KAMINI reactor will be small compared to the total delayed neutron fraction of 233U. |
