20.08.2015   NUCLEAR REACTOR ENGINEERING

NUCLEAR CRITICALITY SAFETY [22]

Introduction

10.114. Whenever fissile material is handled, be it in the manufacture of fuel, loading of fuel assemblies, or storage of spent assemblies, nuclear criticality safety deserves attention. This topic normally refers to out-of­core operations. In-core reactivity safety considerations will be covered in Chapter 12.

10.115. All of the factors that influence the neutron balance affect crit­icality safety when fissile isotopes are being handled. The important con­siderations are the mass of the fissile isotopes, geometry, moderation, and reflection.