Argonaut Reactor

J. A. RENIER, Multi-Group, Multi-Dimensional Investigations of the Power Spectral Densities of the Georgia Tech Research Reactor and the Fast-Thermal Argonaut Reactor, PhD Dissertation, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta (1976). 

Multiplication and critical facilities are also available. With these, the students have access to a critical-facility version of the original Argonaut reactor. In general, this is available for study by students of more advanced level, and the extent of its involvement at any time depends upon the special interest of the particular student concerned. Students and staff have used it diversely in studies of reactor instrumentation. Argonaut pre-critical multiplication studies, and in a study of reactor hazards evaluation. 

In fundamental reactor science, experimental studies display several essential concepts from neutron and reactor physics. Total neutron cross section is measured by a method involving basic neutron-beam techniques in other exercises, measurements of isotopic neutron cross sections and absolute neutron fluxes are made by use of activation methods in the thermal, resonance, and fast regions of the neutron spectrum. The resonance escape probability and fast fission factor are evaluated in the lattice of the Argonaut reactor. 

Lennox, D. H., et al.. The Argonaut Reactor A Generalized Reactor Facility for Nuclear Technology Training and Research, Proceedings of the Second United Nations International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, Geneva, Switzerland, 1 0, 265 (1958). 

In the AGN-201 reactor, positive reactivity is added by inserting fuel control rods in the upward direction from a position below the core. In the Argonaut reactor, positive reactivity is added by removal of absorbing control rods in the upward direction to a position above the core. 

Electronic Instrument Alignment Procedures for the Argonaut Reactor, Argonaut File, ANL,... 

In this experiment, void coefficient measurements are made in the Argonaut reactor as a function of the void location within the core, and the average void coefficient of the core is estimated from the measured data. During the pre-experiment briefing session, the discussions will review quite generally the details and problems of void coefficient measurements. 

In this experiment the overall temperature coefficient of the Argonaut reactor is measured. The basic procedure is to change the temperature of the water mode rator, and from the movements of a calibrated control rod required to maintain criticality, the reactivity worth of the temperature change is determined. 

Discuss each of these temperature coefficients (nuclear and density) in the following regions in the Argonaut reactor ... 

Through use of a "rabbit" facility at the Argonaut reactor, the delayed-neutron parameters of U are measured, A small sample of is irradiated to equilibrium in a neutron flux and subsequently rapidly removed to a shielded counting pig. By means of a neutron counter and a time analyzer, the neutron emission versus time is determined. From these data, at least four of the five so-called groups can be resolved and characterized in terms of their half-lives and relative abundances. 

This experiment is a measurement of j5/ for the Argonaut reactor. The measurements comprise the harmonic analysis of the noise component of a signal derived from a high-efficiency ion chamber exposed to the reactor flux. The spectrum of the noise can be used to yield /3/i through a simple application of the autocorrelation theorem. 

C. E. Cohn prepared and performed the original pile noise experiment on the Argonaut reactor. 

C. Irradiation of the Selected Detectors in the Core of the Argonaut Reactor... 

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