Criticality calculations of uranium storeroom of research reactor fuel element fabrication facility (IPEBRR)

The existence of fissile materials has a potential to the occurrence of unwanted and uncontrollable criticality. Any conditions leading to the occurrence of criticality have to be avoided by applying a procedure or a system. Such conditions that affect criticality among others are: concentration (enrichment), mass and volume of the fissile material, spacing between fuels or containers, the existence of moderators surrounding fissile materials, the existence of neutron absorber materials, etc. The storeroom facility of IPEBRR is a facility to store the raw materials, fabricated fresh fuels as well as scraps containing fissile materials that requires monitoring and calculation on potential criticality. In this paper, the criticality calculations are performed with Monte Carlo Code MCNP5 and nuclear data ENDF/BVI. For the most reactive condition with maximum loading and moderation, it comes up with k_eff=0.512, therefore it gives assurance that criticality accident would not occur at the storeroom facility. (author)