CTR Technical Services, Inc.

2002-03 Newsletter

GNB Introducing an Advanced Cask Design

Gesellschaft fur Nuklear-Behalter mbH (GNB) is introducing two advanced storage and transportation casks for the U.S. market called the CONSTOR X and the CONSTOR V. The casks will be capable of loading 32 PWR fuel assemblies or 69 BWR fuel assemblies for storage at the utility site and then be capable of transporting those assemblies to an off-site storage facility or the permanent repository at Yucca mountain.

The CONSTOR X will be able to transport fuel up to 3.7 wt% and 40 GWd/MTU while the CONSTOR V can handle fuel up to 5.0 wt% and 60 GWd/MTU. The CONSTOR X is a less expensive alternative to the CONSTOR V for older fuel that is less enriched and less burned. The CONSTOR V is designed to accommodate all modern reactor fuel.

The cask body of the CONSTOR cask consists of two steel liners welded to the massive steel head ring with heavy concrete between the liners.

The fuel basket with lodgements is installed in the cask cavity. Optionally, defective fuel assemblies and core components integrated into the fuel assemblies can also be loaded into the cask.

A double-lid system made of steel is available in two versions:

• Primary lid bolted, a membrane and secondary lid, both welded
  
  
• Primary lid bolted, secondary lid bolted

The casks compete economically with storage-only systems but can also be transported. This will allow a utility to reduce their total waste storage and transportation costs. CTR Technical Services and NuclearConsultants.Com will be available to assist GNB in licensing the cask for storage and transportation in the United States.

For more information, please contact GNB at 865-482-6601.

Korean Advanced Incore Detector Project

CTR Technical Services recently helped the Korean Electric Power Research Institute (KEPRI) analyze signals from platinum detectors. We supported the effort by calculating detector response based on the gamma flux calculation in CASMO-3. This result, along with a detector gamma response function previously calculated by KEPRI, will allow the Institute to convert the platinum detector signals to power in the assembly.

Advantages of using platinum versus other more traditional detector materials is that the depletion of platinum in the presence of a large neutron flux is essentially zero and a significant fraction of the detector response is prompt. Such a detector could conceivably be used as input to a reactor protection system based on incore data that would significantly reduce uncertainty in the power distribution and allow the reactor to operate more economically, while preserving a conservative power peaking safety margin.

Preliminary results are very encouraging in that the platinum detectors seem capable of well representing the power distribution in the core. Further development is under way to better understand the physics of the detector process and to accurately predict the response characteristics using a random walk particle transport computer code such as MCNP.

MCNP is an extensively tested and widely used program developed by Los Alamos and is capable of tracking gammas and their interactions in the detector and surrounding material.

Quotes

Americans seek peace in the world. War is the last option for confronting threats. Yet the temporary peace of denial and looking away from danger would only be a prelude to a broader war and greater horror. America will confront gathering dangers early. By showing our resolve today, we are building a future of peace.

President George W. Bush

We believe freedom is a gift from God and not a political grant from government. Freedom is neither license nor anarchy. It is self-control. No more, no less. It must be consistent with the truths expressed in such great moral guides as the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule and the Declaration of Independence.

R. C. Hoiles

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
Patrick Henry

When government accepts responsibility for people, then people no longer take responsibility for themselves.
George Pataki

The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.
Milton Friedman

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas Jefferson

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.
Luke 2:1

The hardest thing in the world to understand is income tax.
Albert Einstein

The government deficit is the difference between the amount of money the government spends and the amount it has the nerve to collect.
Sam Ewing

Russian Language Criticality Report Released

The Russian language version of LA-13638, A Review of Criticality Accidents, has been published. This publication is a Russian translation of the English version which was released in May, 2000 and includes comprehensive descriptions of all process criticality accidents known to have taken place in the United States, Russia, England and Japan since 1953. It also includes descriptions of 38 reactor and critical experiment accidents that have occurred throughout the world since 1945.

The Russian language version includes several technical corrections to the English version and uses color more widely in the document to enhance understanding of the accident for the nuclear criticality specialist.

200 copies of the report have been shipped to Russia for use by criticality experts in that country. The document will become available in electronic PDF format in the near future.

Puzzles

1. A chicken and a half can lay an egg and a half in a day and a half. How long will it take for six chickens to lay six eggs?
   
   
2. An eccentric computer pro-grammer invented a machine that amazingly could correctly answer any yes/no question. It could not talk but it would flash either red or green to indicate the answer. The machines were built in two different countries (China and Japan). Unfortunately, machines from one of the countries answered yes by flashing green while machines from the other country answered yes by flashing red (and you don't know which is which). You have one of these machines sitting in your office. What single yes/no question can you ask the machine to determine which country it came from?
   
   

The Truth About Cats and Dogs

Cat's motto: No matter what you've done wrong, always try to make it look like the dog did it.

Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.
Robert A. Heinlein

If your dog is fat, you aren't getting enough exercise.
Unknown

I loathe people who keep dogs. They are cowards who haven't got the guts to bite people themselves.
August Strindberg

Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.
Ann Landers

In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him.
Dereke Bruce

You enter into a certain amount of madness when you marry a person with pets.
Nora Ephron

Answers to Puzzles

1. A day and a half. One chicken can lay one egg in a day and a half. Therefore, six chickens can lay six eggs in a day and a half.
   
   
2. A question that works is "In China, does green mean yes?" Let us assume that the machine is from China and green does mean yes. To answer correctly, the machine will flash green. Now suppose the machine is from China but green means no. To answer correctly, the machine will flash green! So we see that if the machine flashes green to your question, it must be from China. The student is left to work out the reasoning that if the machine flashes red to your question, it must be from Japan.

Who We Are

CTR Technical Services was incorporated on May 15, 1987 to provide technical support for the nuclear industry. Since then, we have done work for 31 worldwide organizations (located in 21 states and 4 foreign countries). We specialize in the fields of reactor physics calculations and measurements, reactor core monitoring, shielding evaluations, criticality evaluations, and custom software applications.

The President is Charles Rombough who has over 29 years experience in nuclear analysis and software development. Our associate is Steve Martonak who specializes in mathematical modeling of physical systems and computer programming. We have also teamed with Dale Lancaster of NuclearConsultants.com to expand our expertise into other areas.

CTR Technical Services, Inc.
950 Sugarloaf Road
Manitou Springs, CO 80829

Tele: 800 - 524-9328
Fax: 719 - 685-3806

Email: ctr@ctr-tech.com