Thermal analysis of the Pennsylvania State University Breazeale nuclear reactor

An experimental and analytical program has been performed to study the temperature distribution, as a function of reactor power, in the TRIGA reactor at The Pennsylvania State University. A two-dimensional digital computer program written in FORTRAN language numerically solves Poisson's heat equation using finite difference techniques.Experimental measurements of the fuel temperature in the core midplane and in the water over a large portion of the core are incorporated into the computer code, which permits determining the temperature distribution through the core as a function of power. Several interesting results were obtained, one of which showed that sub cooled boiling commences in the core between 150 and 200 kW.