Start-up of Cirus after refurbishment outage and observations during approach to criticality

The report presents various physics related aspects of the startup of Cirus reactor after the prolonged refurbishment outage. The special nuclear instrumentation scheme adopted to ensure safe startup of the reactor is described. Salient observations made and physics measurements carried out during various approaches to criticality are covered. One of the significant observations concerned a major reactivity anomaly during the approach to criticality. After due investigations the cause of the anomaly was attributed to the inadvertent wetting of the graphite reflector which houses the reactor regulating and protection system ion chambers. The report also includes salient observations during raising of reactor power to high levels. The wet reflector also resulted in a significant difference measured between the thermal and neutronic power of the reactor. In view of the reactivity anomaly, the core reactivity variation with time was closely followed and compared with computations. As expected the reactivity anomaly reduced gradually with time. (author)