Analysis of a neutronic computational model for the core of material testing reactor MTR by using SQUID code

Abstract

It is a conventional practice in the design of nuclear reactor to introduce calculation of
hot points to determine spatial variation for energy generated and then determine power
distribution .The study had been carried out for core of a reactor type (MTR) by the neutronic
code SQUID. In this study, we replace the reflector of the reactor by H O 2 instead of D O 2 as
originally the reactor designed .
From the study we conclude that the reactor can operates safely ,to make sure of that we
calculate the multiplication factor where their values ranged from (1.0854) when all control
rods are up to (1.001)when three control rods are up . Also the values of hot points were
calculated and compared with French documents results with D O 2 as a reflector where the
difference is (0.19%),and with light water as reflector instead of heavy water was calculated
. For different cases according to control rod position , the values of hot point ranged between
( 0.46) to (1.64) in case all control rods are up also the values of the average power
distributed on different fuel cells were calculated in case of light water as reflector firstly
with three control rods are down and the maximum value (2.13*10 ) 2Mw  .Secondly in case of
four control rods are down, the maximum value (1.925*10 ) 2Mw  we notice almost coincidence
between the neutron flux distribution through the core of reactor and in different positions of
control rods.