ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
Latest Magazine Issues
Sep 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2025
Nuclear Technology
September 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
High temperature fission chambers engineered for AMR/SMR safety and performance
As the global energy landscape shifts towards safer, smaller, and more flexible nuclear power, Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and Gen. IV* technologies are at the forefront of innovation. These advanced designs pose new challenges in size, efficiency, and operating environment that traditional instrumentation and control solutions aren’t always designed to handle.
Andrew Richard Raymond Telford
Nuclear Technology | Volume 56 | Number 1 | January 1982 | Pages 33-39
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT82-A32878
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tests have been carried out on one of the advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGRs) at Hinkley Point to determine the fuel temperature coefficient of reactivity, an important safety-related parameter. Reactor neutron flux was measured during transients induced by movement of a bank of control rods from one steady position to another. An inverse kinetics analysis was applied to the recorded flux transient to determine the reactivity change as the fuel temperature changed, and the variation of mean fuel temperature was derived from the flux transient by a multiplane thermal-hydraulics code representing an AGR fuel channel The fuel temperature coefficient was then obtained from the slope of a plot of core reactivity against fuel temperature. The uncertainty to be applied to the derived temperature coefficient has been shown to be approximately ±10% at the one standard deviation level The experimental technique has been found to be simple to apply on a commercial reactor and has given consistent results over a range of reactor operating conditions. Calculations of fuel temperature coefficients of reactivity (based on the lattice code, ARGOSY) have been carried out and reactor averaged values deduced for comparison with experiment. The calculated and measured coefficients agree to within one standard deviation over a range of core irradiations and power levels.