Assessment of irradiation temperature stability of the first irradiation testi rig in the HTTR

Shibata, Taiju ; Kikuchi, Takayuki; Miyamoto, Satoshi*; Ogura, Kazutomo*

The High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) can provide very large spaces at high temperatures for irradiation tests. The I-I type irradiation equipment was developed as the first irradiation rig. It will be served for an in-pile creep test on a stainless steel with large standard size specimens. It uses the ambient high temperature of the core for the irradiation temperature control. The target irradiation temperatures are 550 and 600C with the target temperature deviation of 3C. In this study, the irradiation temperature changes at transient conditions were analyzed by an FEM code and the temperature controllability of the equipment was examined by a mockup test. The controllability was evaluated with the measured temperature transient data at the core graphite components in the Rise-to-Power tests of the HTTR. The result indicates that the temperature control method of the equipment is effective to keep the irradiation temperature stable in the irradiation test.