Comprehensive Experiments on Subcritical Assemblies of Cascade Reactor Systems

Abstract

Cascade reactors attract particular attention because of their capability of improving the parameters of pulsed reactors and achieving the feasibility of electronuclear facilities. The paper presents the results of three series of experiments on uranium-neptunium cascade assemblies at the Institute of Nuclear and Radiation Physics of the All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics conducted in 2003–2004. The experiments confirmed theoretical conclusions on positive properties of cascade blankets and effectiveness of using neptunium-237 as a means of creating a one-sided connection between the sections.