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INVESTIGATION OF ‘ONE CONCEPT OF A THERMAL SHIELD FOR THE ROOM HOUSING A MOLTEN-SALT BREEDER REACTOR
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Abstract’:’ !C. 3
The concrete providing the biological shield for a 250~Mw(e) molten-salt breeder reactor must be protected from the gamma current within the reactor room. A configuration of a laminated shielding wall proposed for the reactor room was studied to determine (1) its ability to maintain the bulk temperature of the concrete and the maximum temperature differential at levels below the allowable maximums, (2) whether or not the conduction loss from the reactor room will be kept below a given maximum value, (3) whether air is an acceptable medium for cooling the wall, and (4) the length of time that a loss of this coolant air flow can be sustained before the bulk temperature of the concrete exceeds the maximum allowable temperature. Equations were developed to study the heat transfer and shielding properties of the proposed reactor room wall for various combinations of lamination thicknesses. The proposed configuration is acceptable for (1) an incident monoenergetic (1 Mev) gamma current of 1~ x 1012 photons/c& see and (2) an insulation thickness of 5 in. or more. The best results are obtained when most of the gamma-shield steel is placed on the reactor side of the cooling channel. l
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