ORALLOY (93.2 235U) METAL CYLINDER WITH BERYLLIUM TOP REFLECTOR

A variety of critical experiments were constructed of enriched uranium metal during the 1960s and 1970s at the Oak Ridge Critical Experiments Facility (ORCEF) in support of criticality safety operations at the Y-12 Plant. The purposes of these experiments included the evaluation of storage, casting, and handling limits for the Y-12 Plant and providing data for verification of calculation methods and cross-sections for nuclear criticality safety applications. These included solid cylinders of various diameters, annuli of various inner and outer diameters, two and three interacting cylinders of various diameters, and graphite and polyethylene reflected cylinders and annuli. Of the hundreds of delayed critical experiments, one experiment was comprised of a stack of approximately 7-inch-diameter metal discs. The bottom of the stack consisted of uranium with an approximate height of 4-1/8 inches. The top of the stack consisted of beryllium with an approximate height of 5-9/16 inches. This experiment was performed on August 20, 1963 by J. T. Mihalczo and R. G. Taylor (Ref. 1) with accompanying logbook. Both detailed and simplified model specifications are provided in this evaluation. This fast-spectra experiment was determined to represent an acceptable benchmark. The calculated eigenvalues for both the detailed and simple models are within approximately 0.5% of the benchmark values, but significantly greater than 3s from the benchmark value because the uncertainty in the benchmark is very small: ±0.0002 (1s). There is significant variability between results using different neutron cross section libraries, the greatest being a ?keff of ~0.65% . Unreflected and unmoderated experiments with the same highly enriched uranium metal parts were performed at the Oak Ridge Critical Experiments Facility in the 1960s and are evaluated in HEU MET FAST 051. Thin graphite reflected (2 inches or less) experiments also using the same highly enriched uranium metal parts are evaluated in HEU MET FAST 071. Polyethylene-reflected configurations are evaluated in HEU-MET-FAST-076. Highly enriched metal annuli with beryllium cores are evaluated in HEU-MET-FAST-059