COMPUTATIONAL STUDIES IN SUPPORT OF POSSIBILITY OF CONDUCTING AN IN-PILE EXPERIMENT WITH POWER REACTOR FUEL DURING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE LONG-TERM OPERATION MODE OF THE IGR REACTOR

Research of prototype fuel elements and fuel assemblies in in-pile tests are an integral part in substantiating the safety and operability of installations being designed, and are also necessary for validating the calculation codes. Despite the long service life and a large number of studies conducted in the IGR reactor, the capabilities of this reactor under conditions of implementing long-term experiments at minimum power are still not fully clear. This paper presents a substantiation of the possibility of implementing an experiment with power reactor fuel during the implementation of the long-term operation mode of the IGR reactor. Neutronic and thermal-hydraulic calculations were performed to determine the energy release in the fuel and structural materials of the experimental device, the time to achieve steady-state heat exchange between the fuel element and the cooling gas at a steady-state fuel element power level, and the temperature distribution in the test section at specified energy parameters.