ZPPR-10B experiment; A 650 MWe-class sodium-cooled MOX-fueled FBR homogeneous core mock-up critical experiment with two enrichment zones, seven control rods and twelve control rod positions

Sanda, Toshio*; Ishikawa, Makoto

The International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project (IRPhEP) is an international cooperative effort hosted by OECD/NEA to provide integral benchmark data with high quality for method and data validation in the reactor physics field. JAEA is actively contributing this important project so far. The ZPPR-10B benchmark is one of the JUPITER program series which was a joint research program between the United States and Japan using the ZPPR (Zero Power Plutonium Reactor) facility at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL)-West in Idaho to study the nuclear characteristics of large Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) cores. The JUPITER program consisted of twenty-one experimental cores built between 1978 and 1988 and is considered as one of the most important data sources in the current FBR core study because (1) it included the largest experimental core in FBR history, (2) it covered a wide variety of core concepts and structures, (3) various kinds of core parameters were measured, (4) it had excellent experimental technology, and (5) documentation was precisely recorded by the experimenters. The ZPPR-10B experiments performed at ANL-West in 1979, was an engineering mock up of a 650 MWe-class sodium-cooled MOX-fueled FBR homogeneous core with two enrichment zones, control rods and control rod positions. As the core parameters, criticality, reaction rate distribution and ratio, control rod worth and sodium void reactivity were measured and evaluated as the IRPhEP benchmarks. The ZPPR-10B benchmark is expected to be used as a standard experiment to validate the nuclear characteristics of large FBR core analyses and design works in future.