BORAX experiments

BORAX experiments ( Boiling Reactor Experiment ) was called a series of reactor experiments in the Idaho National Laboratory (USA), with which, in the 1950s, the stability behavior has been studied by boiling water reactors.

The technology of light water reactors was in the 1950s, still in its infancy. As to the boiling water type, one was located in the uncertain what effect bubbles in the reactor core on the stability of the operating behavior. It has been known that a compression of the bubbles nucleated physically increased by increasing the pressure in the reactor system, the criticality of the reactor is critical, and thus unstable. The experiments but have provided evidence that a long-term stable operation is possible and the reactor only occasionally prone to Überkritikalität that can be collected is usually due to the Doppler effect, that is, by the fact that after the power excursion form of an undesirable increase in nuclear fissions by stronger bubbles in the water moderator of post performance is lowered again.

The highlight of the experiments with the reactor BORAX I was a destructive test, in which a total loss of the system was taken into account. There were attached to the shutdown rods explosives. This caused sudden projecting the rods from the reactor led to a sudden power excursion that did not lead, however, thanks to the above Doppler effect to a total destruction of the plant. However, the consequences were still underestimated: It was expected that only a few fuel would melt, but had to take note that a large part of the whole reactor core was sealed.

Swell

• ANL -W History - Reactors ( BORAX -I) ( English) ( archived version of the Internet Archive on 5 February 2006 )

• Research reactor