2009 International Nuclear Atlantic Conference - INAC 2009

Rio de Janeiro,RJ, Brazil, September27 to October 2, 2009

ASSOCIAÇÃO BRASILEIRA DE ENERGIA NUCLEAR - ABEN
ISBN: 978-85-99141-03-8

THERMAL POWER CALIBRATIONS OF THE IPR-R1 TRIGA

REACTOR BY THE CALORIMETRIC AND THE HEAT BALANCE
METHODS
Amir Zacarias Mesquita1; Hugo César Rezende2 and Rose Mary Gomes do Prado
Souza3

Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear - CDTN/CNEN

Caixa Postal 941 Campus da UFMG - Pampulha
30 123 970. Belo Horizonte, MG
1
[email protected]; [email protected], [email protected];

ABSTRACT

Since the first nuclear reactor was built, a number of methodological variations have been evolved for the
calibration of the reactor thermal power. Power monitoring of reactors is done by means of neutronic
instruments, but its calibration is always done by thermal procedures. The purpose of this paper is to present the
results of the thermal power calibration carried out on March 5th, 2009 in the IPR-R TRIGA reactor. It was used
two procedures: the calorimetric and heat balance methods. The calorimetric procedure was done with the
reactor operating at a constant power, with primary cooling system switched off. The rate of temperature rise of
the water was recorded. The reactor power is calculate as a function of the temperature-rise rate and the system
heat capacity constant. The heat balance procedure consists in the steady-state energy balance of the primary
cooling loop of the reactor. For this balance, the inlet and outlet temperatures and the water flow in the primary
cooling loop were measured. The heat transferred through the primary loop was added to the heat leakage from
the reactor pool. The calorimetric method calibration presented a large uncertainty. The main source of error
was the determination of the heat content of the system, due to a large uncertainty in the volume of the water in
the system and a lack of homogenization of the water temperature. The heat balance calibration in the primary
loop is the standard procedure for calibrating the power of the IPR-R1 TRIGA nuclear reactor.

1. INTRODUCTION

The IPR-R1 TRIGA Mark I nuclear research reactor at the Nuclear Technology Development
Center - CDTN (Belo Horizonte) is an open pool type reactor. It was designed for research,
training and radioisotope production. The fuel elements in the reactor core are cooled by
water natural circulation. The heat removal capability of this process is great enough for
safety reasons at the current maximum 250 kW power level configuration. However, a heat
removal system is provided for removing heat from the reactor pool water. The water is
pumped through a heat exchanger, where the heat is transferred from the primary to the
secondary loop. The secondary loop water is cooled in an external cooling tower.

TRIGA reactors are the most widely used research reactor in the world. There is an installed
base of over sixty-five facilities in twenty-four countries on five continents. General Atomics
(GA), the supplier of TRIGA research reactors, continues to design and install TRIGA
reactors around the world, and has built TRIGA reactors in a variety of configurations and
capabilities, with steady state thermal power levels ranging from 100 kW to 16 MW. The
TRIGA reactors are used in many diverse applications, including production of radioisotopes
for medicine and industry, treatment of tumors, nondestructive testing, basic research on the
properties of matter, and for education and training. The TRIGA reactor is the only nuclear
reactor in this category that offers true "inherent safety", rather than relying on "engineered
safety". It is possible due to the unique properties of GA's uranium-zirconium hydride fuel,
which provides unrivaled safety characteristics, which also permit flexibility in sitting, with
minimal environmental effects [1].

The IPR-R1 TRIGA reactor at CDTN has started up on November 11th, 1960. At that time
the maximum thermal power was 30 kW. The actual forced cooling system was built in the
70th and the power was upgraded to 100 kW. Recently the power was upgraded again to 250
kW at steady state. Before the first start-up of the reactor the pool water was heated by
calibrated electrical heaters, with a known power, immersed into the core. This will result in a
water temperature increase in a certain time interval which can be measured very accurately
by thermometers. The reactor was then operated to give the same rate of water temperature
rise, with the forced cooling system shut down. Thus the thermal power of the operating
reactor could be easily calculated. This method was used by General Atomics (GA) in the
startup of several facilities. Typically, a heater with a 10 - 20 kW capacity was used for Mark
I reactors (IPR-R1 model). Numerous problems have developed with the electrical heater
technique over past 30 years. First, it is the inconvenience from repeated use of the electrical
heaters. The second reason is that adequate stirring of the water is necessary in order to
provide greater precision in the results of the calibration. In most cases, the electrical heater
power level was only a tiny fraction of the final reactor power, typically 10 - 12 kW for 250 -
1000 kW TRIGA reactors, giving an output which was only 1.2 to 5% of full power. Under
these circumstances, the extrapolation from the calibration power to full reactor involves a
factor from 10 to 20 or more. Such large scale extrapolations require careful attention to the
linearity of the power monitoring circuitry. After the first few installations of TRIGA
reactors, the initial power calibration for later reactors was performed without the electrical
heaters [2]. Over the many years since the first TRIGA reactor was built, a number of
calibration methods have been evolved for the reactor thermal power. Power monitoring of
nuclear reactors is always done by means of nuclear detectors, which are calibrated by
thermal methods. In the IPR-R1 reactor four neutron-sensitive chambers are mounted around
the reactor core for flux measurement (neutronic channel). These channels were adjusted with
the results of the thermal calibration (heat balance method) described in this paper. The
methodology and the results of this calibration, carried out on March 5th 2009 in the IPR-R1
TRIGA reactor at CDTN using the Calorimetric Method and the Heat Balance Method, are
describe here.

2. THE CALORIMETRIC METHOD

The calorimetric procedure is essentially the same whether it involves the calorimetric
determination of heat equivalent of electrical energy. With the reactor operating at a constant
power, the rate of temperature rise was determined. With a tank constant (∆T per unit power)
calculated for the applicable heat content of the system, the reactor power was then
determined from the measured rate of the temperature rise from operation of the reactor.
The method is performed according to the following procedure [3]:

- Cover the reactor tank to increase the thermal isolation.

- Operate the reactor at constant power with primary cooling system switched off.
- Record the temperature rise of the pool water, air and soil around the pool.

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 - Determine the temperature-rise rate (∆T/∆t).
- Calculate the reactor power as a function of temperature-rise rate.
- Calculate the heat losses.

The basic formulation is the following:

q = K dT/dt , (1)

where q is the power and K is the experimentally determined heat capacity constant given by:

K = ρ Vw . cp , (2)

where ρ is the water density, Vw is the water volume and cp is the water specific heat capacity.
The reactor pool heat capacity constant can be calculated as well. In the first approximation,
we can assume that the rector pool temperature is constant throughout the pool and neglect all
heat losses from the pool. We can approximate the reactor pool as an insulated “point”
system. We can treat reactor pool as insulated when water temperature is close to air and soil
temperatures. So the reactor heat capacity K can be simply calculated from wet pool volume
Vw. For the TRIGA system the mass is mainly the water in the tank because of its large heat
capacity. The product of the metal components mass times their individual heat capacity is
too small compared to the heat content of the large body of water.

3. THE HEAT BALANCE METHOD

The heat balance methodology for the thermal power calibration consists of the measurement
of the power dissipated through the primary loop added to the calculated heat losses from the
reactor pool. The power dissipated at the cooling loop will be closer to the reactor power the
closer the water temperature in the reactor pool is to the environment temperature. It means
that the reactor pool temperature must be set close to soil temperature around the pool, and
that the air temperature in the reactor room set close to the pool temperature [4]. Therefore, it
is important to obtain these conditions and also a stability of the pool temperature over a long
period of time, one and a half hours or longer. This can be obtained only after some hours of
reactor operation, mainly at night, when there are smaller outside air temperature changes.

The thermal power dissipated through the primary loop can be calculated with a simple
thermal balance from the measured values of the inlet and outlet temperatures of the water
and its flow rate. The reactor thermal power is obtained by adding this value to the thermal
losses. These losses represent a very small fraction of the total power. The power dissipated
in the secondary loop was also measured by a thermal balance. The power (q) was obtained
through a thermal balance given by the following equation:

q= m& cp. ∆T . (3)

Where m& is the flow rate of the coolant water in the primary loop, cp is the specific heat of
the coolant, and ∆T is the difference between the temperatures at the inlet and the outlet of
the primary loop. The data acquisition computer program calculates using the Eq. 3, the
power dissipated in the cooling loop with the collected data, with m& and cp values corrected
as a function of the coolant temperature [5].

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 4. HEAT LOSSES FROM THE REACTOR POOL TO THE ENVIRONMENT

The core of the TRIGA Mark I IPR-R1 nuclear reactor is placed below the room floor, in the
bottom of a cylindrical pool 6.417 m deep and 1.92 m in diameter as shown in Figure 1. The
reactor pool transfers heat to the environment by conduction to the soil, through the lateral
walls and through the bottom of the pool, and by convection and evaporation to the air at the
reactor room, through the upper surface.

The reactor pool was built as a five layer cylindrical tank, open at the upper side as shown in
Figure 1. The innermost layer, which is in contact with the water, is 10 mm thick and is made
of a special alloy of aluminum (AA-5052-H34). Surrounding it there is a 72 mm thick layer
of concrete and then a 6.3 mm thick stainless steel layer. After that, another concrete layer
203 mm thick and finally another stainless steel layer 6.3 mm thick.

4.1. Heat losses from the pool to the soil

The heat losses through the lateral walls are given by the equation below [6]:

Tint − Text . (4)

Q1 =
Ral + Rci + Rss + Rce

Where Tint is the average temperature of the internal wall of the pool, Text is the average
temperature of the soil around the reactor, Ral is the thermal resistance of the aluminum layer,
Rci is the thermal resistance of the internal concrete layer, Rss is the thermal resistance of the
stainless steel layer and Rce is the thermal resistance of the external concrete layer.
The thermal resistance for cylindrical walls was obtained from the following equation [6]:

l r 
R= ln e  . (5)
2πhk  ri 

Where l is the height of the water in the reactor pool (6.417 m), k is the thermal conductivity
of each material, ri and re are the internal and external radii of each wall layer.
The heat transfer through the bottom of the pool is obtained from:

Tint − Text
Q2 = . (6)
Ral 2 + Rci 2 + Rss 2 + Rce 2

The values of the thermal resistance for flat surface section are obtained from the following
equation [6]:

d
R= . (7)
Ak

Where d is the thickness of each wall layer and A is the area of the upper surface.

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 Figure 1. The TRIGA Mark I IPR-R1 nuclear reactor pool

4.2. Heat losses from the pool to the air in the reactor room
The heat losses due to the evaporation in the upper surface of the reactor pool were calculated
by the following equation [7]:

qev = m& λ , (8)

where λ is the difference between the specific enthalpy of saturated water and the specific
enthalpy of saturated steam at the wet-bulb temperature of the air in the reactor room, and m&
is the rate of mass transfer from the pool to the air , given by the equation:

m& = h D ⋅ A ⋅ ρ air (C sat − C ∞ ) , (9)

where A is the upper surface of the reactor pool, ρair is the air density, Csat is the vapor
concentration at saturation conditions for the air at the reactor room temperature, C∞ is the
vapor concentration in the air in the reactor room and hD is the mass−transfer coefficient
given by the following equation:

2
hc  Pr  3
hD =   , (10)
ρ air ⋅ Cp air  Sc 

where Pr is the Prandtl number (0.708 for the air at 25 ºC), Sc is the Schmidt number (0.60
for water vapor diffusing in the air at 25 ºC), Cpair is the heat capacity of the air, hc is the
convection heat transfer coefficient, obtained from:

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 k
hc = Nu , (11)
L

where k is the thermal conductivity in the air, L is the characteristic length of the heat transfer
surface, equivalent to 0.9 times the diameter of the pool or 1.728 m and Nu is the Nusselt
number obtained from:

Nu = 0.14(Gr ⋅ Pr )1 / 3 , (12)

Gr is the Grashof number given by:

g ⋅ β ⋅ (Tsur − T∞ )⋅ L3
Gr = , (13)
υ2

where g is the acceleration due to gravity, β is the volumetric thermal expansion coefficient
of the air, Tsur is the water pool temperature at the surface, T∞ is the air temperature in the
reactor room and ν is the kinematic viscosity of the air.

The relative humidity of the air in the room of the reactor was monitored during the tests. The
convection heat transfer through the reactor pool surface was calculated with the following
equation [7]:

qc = hc ⋅ A ⋅ (Tsur − T∞ ) (14)

5. INSTRUMENTATION

Three type K thermocouples and one resistance thermometer (PT-100) were positioned inside
the pool, at different heights, to measure the water pool temperatures. Two type K
thermocouples were placed in the core, one at the channel exit and the other at the channel
entrance. A type K thermocouple was placed just above the pool surface to measure the air
temperature at the reactor room. One type K thermocouple was positioned in a hole in the
reactor room floor to measure the soil temperature (Fig. 2). Two platinum resistance
thermometers (PT−100) were positioned at the inlet and at the outlet pipes of the primary
cooling loop, just above the water surface of the reactor pool (see Tin prim and Tout prim in Fig.
2). These thermometers, together with a flow-measuring device at the loop, give the power
dissipated through the primary cooling loop. The flow-measuring device consists of an orifice
plate and a differential pressure transmitter. This pressure transmitter was calibrated and an
adjusted equation was obtained and added to the data acquisition system. The temperature
measuring lines were calibrated as a whole, including thermometers, cables, data acquisition
cards and computer. The adjusted equations were also added to the data acquisition system.
The temperature measuring lines were also calibrated as a whole, including thermocouples or
resistance thermometer, cables, data acquisition cards and computer. The equations obtained
for each line were also added to the data acquisition system.

For the measurement of the power dissipated in the secondary cooling loop, two resistance
thermometers (PT−100) were also positioned in its inlet and outlet pipes. The water flow rate
at this loop was maintained constant and was also measured. The sensor signs were sent to an

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amplifier and multiplexing board, which also makes the temperature compensation for the
thermocouples. These signs were sent to a data acquisition card that makes the
analog / digital conversion. This card was installed together in a computer where the data
were calculated, registered and recorded. All data were obtained as the average of 120
readings and were recorded together with their standard deviations. The data acquisition
system registers these data once a second [8].

Figure 2. The IPR-R1 TRIGA research reactor cooling system and instrumentation

6. RESULTS

6.1 The calorimetric method calibration

The reactor operated during a period of about 2.5 hours with the forced cooling system
switched off and with an indication of 100 kW at the linear neutronic channel. The calculated
average water volume Vw during the experiment was 17.7 m3 and the heat capacity calculated
was K= 20.35 kW/oC. The thermophysical properties of water used in the calculation were for
38 oC. The value was very close to the results obtained for the reactor TRIGA at Ljubljana,
K = 20.4 kWh/K (Vw= 17.6 m3), and for the reactor TRIGA at Vienna, K= 19.1 kWh/K (Vw=
16.5 m3) [3].

The temperature rising rates measurement for all thermometers in the reactor pool during
calorimetric power calibration are presented in Fig. 3 and the average water temperature
rising rate and its fitted equation are shown in Fig. 4. Table 1 sumarize the experiment
results, the thermal power obtained by this method was 102 kW (±21 %).

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 Figure 3. Temperature-rise rates during calorimetric power calibration procedure

Figure 4. Average temperature rising rates during calorimetric power calibration

procedure

Table 1. Calorimetric method results.

Parameter Value
Temperature-rise rate (∆T/∆t) 4.84[oC/h]
Average water temperature rise 34oC to 41 oC
Water volume rise 17.36 m3 to 17.86 m3
Average water volume 17. 7 m3
Power dissipated 99 [kW]
Thermal losses from the reactor pool 3 [kW]
Total reactor power 102 kW
Uncertainty ± 21 kW (± 21 %)

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6.2 The heat balance method calibration
The heat balance calibration was done after the calorimetric calibration. The reactor was
critical at 100 kW indicated in the linear neutronic channel and the forced cooling system was
turned on. The reactor operated during a period of about 7 hours. The power dissipated
through the primary and the secondary cooling loop were monitored during the whole test
period, and the measured temperatures were stable for 74 min (from 22:00 h to 23:24 h).
Figure 5 shows the evolution of the measured temperatures during the calorimetric calibration
and the heat balance calibration. Figure 6 shows the evolution of the thermal power
dissipated in the cooling system during the stable period. Table 2 presents some parameters in
this period, the thermal power obtained by this method was 112 kW (±5.9 %).

Figure 5. Temperature evolution during the heat balance power calibration procedure

Figure 6. Temperature and power evolution during the period of stability (last 1.4 h) in
the heat balance power calibration procedure

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 Table 2. Heat balance method results.

Parameter Value
Average primary loop coolant flow rate 30.09 ± 0.02 m3/h
Average primary loop inlet temperature 33.4 ± 0.2 oC
Average primary loop outlet temperature 30.2 ± 0.2 oC
Power dissipated in the primary loop 111 kW
Thermal losses from the reactor pool 1.4 kW
Total reactor power 112 kW
Standard deviation of the readings ± 4.0 kW
Uncertainty 6.6 kW(± 5.9 %)
( )
Power dissipated in the secondary loop * 85 kW
( )
* Not considered for thermal power calibration

6.4 The calorimetric method uncertainty

The calorimetric method equation was calculated by Eq. (1) or:

q = ρ Vw . cp . (∆T/∆t) (15)

Then, the power uncertainty was calculated considering the following uncertainties of: the
water density (ρ), the water volume in the pool (Vw), the estimated water specific heat
capacity (cp) as function of temperature, the water pool temperature rise (∆T) and the time
interval (∆t).

The power uncertainty ( U q' ) is given by the following equation [9], [10]:

2 2 2 2
  ∂q   ∂q   ∂q 
2
 ∂q   ∂q , (16)
U q' =  Uρ  +  U c p  +  U Vw  +  U T  +  U t 
 ∂ρ   ∂c p 
  ∂Vw   ∂T   ∂t 


where: Uρ , Uc , UV , U T and U t are the consolidated uncertainties of the independent primary

p w

variables: ρ, cp , Vw , T and t . Solving the differential partial equation it meets the following
relative uncertainty expression for the value for the thermal power:

2 2 2 2 2
U q' U   U Vw   U c p   UT   Ut 
=  ρ  +   +  +  +  . (17)
q  ρ   Vw   c p  T
 
 t
 



The measurement of punctual temperatures and time were done with considerable accuracy
and precision. The main source of error is the determination of the heat content of the system.
Most of this comes from an uncertainty in the exact volume of the water in the system and
mainly from a lack of homogenization of the water pool temperature. Unfortunately, a stirrer
was not used in the water resulting in imperfect mixing during the calorimetric calibration
experiment. Without a stirrer and with reactor power of about 100 kW, the flow pattern of hot
water from the core, with primary cooling system switched off, is a columnar chimney rising
up about half way to the surface of the pool and then bending over in a mushroom fashion to
return to the region bellow the reactor core. This was observed during the experiments of the

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IPR-R1 TRIGA reactor temperature distribution measurement [11]. Then, it is easy to
imagine that the measured rate of temperature rise near the top of the pool can give quite
different results depending upon where the temperature probes were located in the tank and
whether the chimney reaches all the way to the top of the tank. So, it is obviously necessary
to provide reproducible temperature measurements that are relatively independent of the
location of the temperature probe. A stirrer will homogenize the temperature. It is important
to note that the stirring produced by the motor driven impeller assures that all the water in the
tank participates in the calorimetric measurement. The small rate of energy added by the
pump motor is typically less than 1 kW and can be added in the power results. The
uncertainty of the calorimetric calibration was calculated in ± 21 %.

6.5 Heat balance method uncertainty

The thermal power dissipated through the primary cooling loop was calculated by Eq. (3) or:

q = m& cp (Ti – Tout) . (18)

The power uncertainty was calculated considering the uncertainties of: the measured flow
rate ( m& ) [12], the inlet and outlet temperatures (Ti – Tout) in the heat exchanger and also the
estimated water heat capacity (cp) as function of temperature.

The power uncertainty ( U q' ) is given by the following equation [9], [10]:

2 2 2
  ∂q   ∂q
2
 ∂q   ∂q  , (19)
'
U =  U m&  +  U c p  +  U Tin  +  U Tout 
q
 ∂m& 
  ∂c p 
  ∂Tin   ∂Tout 

where: U m& , U c p , U Tent and U Tsai are the consolidated uncertainties of the independent primary
variables: m& , cp , Tin and Tout . Solving the differential partial equation it meets the following
expression for the relative uncertainty value for the thermal power:

2 2 2
 U m&   U c p   U Tin
2
U q'   U Tin 
=   + +  +   . (20)
q  m&   c p   Tin − Tout   Tin − Tout 

The standard deviation of the readings (Sq) of the average power should be added then the
uncertainty will be:

2 2
Uq  U q'   Sq 
=   +  . (21)
q  q   q
   

The uncertainty found in the heat balance calibration was calculated in ± 5.9 %. The
uncertainties shown in Table 1 and Table 2 were calculated by the data acquisition software
considering all these parameters.

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 7. CONCLUSIONS

The calorimetric method calibration presented a large uncertainty. The main source of error
was the determination of the heat content of the system, due to a large uncertainty in the
volume of the water in the system and a lack of homogenization of the water temperature.
Unfortunately, a stirrer was not used in the pool water resulting in imperfect mixing during
the calorimetric calibration experiment. The value of the thermal power obtained by the
calorimetric method was (102 ± 21) kW.

The heat balance calibration in the primary loop, describe here, is the standard procedure for
calibrating the power of the IPR-R1 TRIGA Mark I nuclear reactor. For continuous
monitoring of the thermal reactor power level, the instrumentation for temperature and flow
signal measurement was incorporate in the data acquisition system. The evolution of this
parameter is displayed, in real time, and recorded on the digital monitoring system computer
developed for the reactor [13]. The value of the thermal power obtained by the heat balance
method was (112 ± 6.6) kW. The calculated uncertainties in the experiments agree with other
nuclear reactor calibrations [3], [14], [15].

The reactor thermal power calibration is very important for precise neutron flux knowledge
for many irradiation experiments and fuel element burnup calculations. The burnup is linearly
dependent on the reactor thermal power and its accuracy is important to the determination of
the mass of burned U235, fission products, fuel element activity, decay heat power generation
and radiotoxicity.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors express their thanks to the IPR-R1 operational staff and to the Fundação de
Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) for the partial financial support.

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