College of Engineering Unit:
A common concern of the international community is the production of weapons grade nuclear material in typical civilian nuclear research reactors. The objective of this project is to determine if a typical civilian research reactor can produce an IAEA significant quantity of nuclear material (specifically plutonium-239) in a short time frame. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) defines a “significant quantity” to be 8 kilograms or greater of plutonium-239. Plutonium-239 is produced by bombarding uranium-238 with neutrons, inducing a nuclear capture reaction, and following a series of radioactive decay steps, plutonium-239 is produced.
The OSU TRIGA® Reactor (OSTR) is an exemplary candidate for this study, as it is a low-powered research reactor owned and operated by a public institution. OSTR was modeled using the Monte Carlo N-Particle transport code, or MCNP®. Geometry data was provided by the OSTR staff, the OSTR training manual, and General Atomics engineering drawings. The model was verified using experimental data from the OSTR Post-Conversion Startup Report from 2008 when OSTR switched from HEU to LEU fuel. In addition, control rod calibration data was pulled from OSTR logbooks.
Multiple designs were generated for a production target that would fit in the OSTR core. A burn period of roughly one year of operations was chosen for this study. To evaluate how much Pu-239 is produced, the BURN function of MCNP is utilized. It was found that a large number of targets could be placed in the core. The neutronic impact was substantial as a significant amount of fuel was removed, so control rods were withdrawn completely to maintain criticality.
The results of this study revealed that it is impossible to produce a significant quantity of plutonium-239 in a reasonable time frame. Using OSTR, it would take over 1,400 years of standard operations (or over 200 years of continuous operation) to produce 8 kilograms. See attached file for details.
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Analysis of the Proliferation Capability of Low-Powered Civilian Research Reactors (Poster) | 1.35 MB |