YALINA-Booster conversion project

The YALINA Booster subcritical assembly was constructed at the Joint Institute for Power and Nuclear Research (JIPNR)-SOSNY, Belarus to examine the physics of Accelerator Driven Systems (ADS). The assembly has fast and thermal zones to study the coupling between the two zones, the transuranics transmutation, and the ADS kinetics. It is driven by an external neutron source located at the assembly center. The central fast zone (the booster zone) consists of high enriched uranium (HEU) fuel rods loaded in a lead matrix and it is surrounded by the thermal zone. The thermal zone has low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel rods loaded in polyethylene moderator. Between the two zones, there is a thermal neutron absorber. JIPNR-SOSNY has an International Science and Technology Center project in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory of USA to replace the HEU fuel of YALINA Booster with LEU fuel without penalizing its performance. In this paper, the analytical models and the obtained results performed for the project are presented including the static and the kinetic results. The experimental and analytical results are compared and discussed. The new assembly configuration with LEU is also presented. (author)