A New Era of Nuclear Criticality Experiments: The First 10 Years of Planet Operations at NCERC

Planet is a vertical-lift assembly machine currently located at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) at the Nevada National Security Site. In the past, Planet resided at Technical Area-18 in Los Alamos, New Mexico, as part of the Los Alamos Critical Experiments Facility (LACE...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nuclear science and engineering 2021-11, Vol.195 (sup1), p.S1-S16
Main Authors: Sanchez, Rene, Cutler, Theresa, Goda, Joetta, Grove, Travis, Hayes, David, Hutchinson, Jesson, McKenzie, George, McSpaden, Alexander, Myers, William, Rico, Roberto, Walker, Jessie, Weldon, Robert
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Benchmark Experiments
Critical Assembly Machine
Criticality Experiments
INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Integral Experiments
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION
National Criticality Experiments Research Center
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
Planet
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Summary:Planet is a vertical-lift assembly machine currently located at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) at the Nevada National Security Site. In the past, Planet resided at Technical Area-18 in Los Alamos, New Mexico, as part of the Los Alamos Critical Experiments Facility (LACEF). Following the de-inventorying of LACEF, the Planet assembly was relocated to NCERC in 2008 and became fully operational in June of 2011. The Class Foils experiment, which involves stacking highly enriched uranium foils to obtain a critical configuration, was the first critical experiment performed on Planet. As a major component of the Nuclear Criticality Safety Class taught for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Criticality Safety Program, the Class Foils experiment allows personnel from all over the DOE complex to handle nuclear material and to complete the approach to critical safely and successfully. This paper describes the Planet vertical assembly and recent engineering upgrade and a selection of the experiments that have been performed on Planet since its transition to NCERC 10 years ago.
ISSN:0029-5639
1943-748X
DOI:10.1080/00295639.2021.1951077