Boiling Water Reactor
The Boiling Water Reactor type continues to leok quite promising as an
The BER (Boiling Experimental Reactor),
pt eb ew be eet me mm
5
.
early achievement of nuclear power.
to be constructed at Argonne, is scheduled to go critical by December 31,
1956,
It will be a slightly enriched reactor, rated at 20 megawatts of
heat and producing 5000 kw of electricity.
The estimated cost of $3.5
million includes a semi-spherical building, 80 ft in diameter, which will
hold 15 lbs per square inch pressure.
There are many questions still to be resolved, notably the corrosion
resistance and permissible burn-up of the fuel elements, the amount of radioactive contamination of the steam system and its effects on operations and
maintenance, and the nuclear stability of the reactor system under a variable
demand for steam.
com ee
“= <8 merBoreexperiment at Arco this summer which was a deliberate "testto-destruction" prior to installing a new reactor was apparently most
instructive; the "destruction" being far more comprehensive and spectacular
than anticipated.
However, the results of this test, which was designed
to introduce 4% excess reactivity as rapidly as practicable, should not be
interpreted as casting doubt on the workability of a boiling reactor.
Considerable progress is occurring in fuel element composition and
fabrication, although Argonne does not yet have an element which can assuredly
stand the burn-up demanded for reasonably economic operation and has very
little indication of the effects of pile irradiation on corrosion and on
stability of the elements.
The design for the BER element is a sandwich
net
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poe BROH