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LANL Basic 5-Day Course (5271)

This course Will NOT Be Offered in 2005

The program is directed toward personnel who currently have significant criticality safety responsibilities, engineers entering the field of criticality safety, and others with a strong involvement in criticality safety. A basic background in mathematics and science, along with fundamentals such as found in basic reactor theory courses, is assumed, however, detailed theoretical developments will be avoided. Examples and common analogies are used to explain complex concepts and processes. The course emphasizes practical approaches and common-sense attitudes toward criticality safety and relative risks. Course content encourages realistic perspectives in a world where zero-risk is impossible and total risks must be controlled to acceptably low levels.

Course Schedule and Registration


Monday Lecture
  • Introduction
    • Safety Philosophy - Fundamentals of Safety
    • Radiation Safety versus Criticality Safety
    • Risks in Perspective

  • Basic Concepts and Nomenclature
    • Atoms and Neutrons, Sizes and Masses
    • Neutron Cross Sections
    • Fission Processes
    • Prompt and Delayed Neutrons

  • Idealized and Real Fissioning Systems
    • Neutron Slowing Down
    • Neutron Life Cycle
    • Multiplication Factor
    • Metal versus Solution Systems

  • Time Behavior of Fissioning Systems
    • Delayed Neutron Effefcts
    • Prompt and Delayed Neutrons
    • Reactor Period
Monday Laboratory
  • Control Room and Kiva Operation
  • Operating Procedures and Limits for Critical Assemblies
  • Hand-Stacking Experiment Part I, to Multiplication ~ 10
Tuesday Lecture
  • Safety Philosophy - Policy and Responsibility
  • Minimum Critical Masses
  • Factors that Influence Criticality and Practical Criticality Control
    • Slab, Annular, and Poisoned Tanks
    • Limited-Volume Dissolvers
    • Solution Storage in 5- and 6-Inch Tanks
    • Storage Vaults - Interaction
    • Moderation Control - Dry Oxide Processing
    • Concentration Control
    • Mass Limits
    • Reflection
    • Density Effects
    • Enrichment - Slightly Enriched Uranium
 Tuesday Laboratory
  • Hand-Stacking Experiment Part II, to Multiplication ~ 100
Wednesday Lecture
  • Safety Philosophy - Written Procedures and Training
  • Basic Methods for Criticality Safety Analyses
    • Bucking Conversions
    • Density Scaling
    • Solid Angle
    • Density Analog
    • Surface Density
Wednesday Laboratory
  • Critical Assembly Operations at Delayed Critical and on Positive Periods
  • Practical Problem Solving Using the Basic Methods
Thursday Lecture
  • Safety Philosophy 
    • Striving for the Possible
    • Case Studies
    • Lessons Learned
  • Computer Codes for Criticality Safety Analyses
    • One- and Two-Dimensional Diffusion Theory and Transport Theory
    • Monte Carlo
    • Cross-Section Sets
    • Benchmark Data
    • Practical Problem Solving - Computer Code Analsyses
Thursday Laboratory
  • Tour of Plutonium Processing Facility (Q-cleared or L-Cleared )
Friday Lecture
  • Safety Philosophy - Communication and Enlightened Challenge
  • Transportation Considerations - Determining the Transport Index
  • Administrative Practices
    • Department of Energy Orders
    • Emergency Preparedness
    • Alarm Dosimetry
    • National Concensus Standards
  • Documentation - References
Disclaimer
Page modified: 8-Nov-2004 - 2:41 p.m. MST