A criticality safety assessment of uranium compound storage at the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant

Highly enriched uranium recovery operations at the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant require storage of fissile compounds generated in the various plant processes. These fissile compounds are stored in process containers of various dimensions, depending on the material type. The process containers are stored on rack positions on 45.7 cm centers vertically and 61.0 cm horizontally. The rack array size selected for modeling is 9 units x 9 units x 9 units (729 positions), which is indicative of the larger process can storage arrays involved in the highly enriched uranium recovery operations areas. By varying the parameters of uranium material type, interstitial moderation, and array reflection, this study assesses the sensitivity of a generic rack array model to the various parameters affecting the criticality safety of the array. (Author)