Pulsed reactor experiments at Oak Ridge

This paper describes dynamic experiments for 3 pulsed reactors. 1st reactor was pulsed from some average power by rotating a partial Be reflector past an unreflected core face; the other 2 reactors were pulsed by rapid insertion of a fuel rod into the unmoderated and unreflected reactor at essentially zero neutron level with no significant neutron source present. The first reactor was a mockup of an EURATOM design (never constructed) of the proposed SORA Reactor, and the other two were the Health Physics Research Reactor and the Army Pulse Radiation Facility Reactor (APRFR). This paper describes the experiments performed in initial testing of these systems, including destructive tests of APRFR, to set operating limits for this type of reactor in pulsed operation. All the experiments described were performed at the Oak Ridge Critical Experiments Facility