Determination of thermal hydraulic data of GHARR-1 under reactivity insertion transients using the PARET/ANL code

The PARET/ANL code has been adapted by the IAEA for testing transient behaviour in research reactors since it provides a coupled thermal hydrodynamic and point kinetics capability for estimating thermal hydraulic margins. A two-channel power peaking profile of the Ghana Research Reactor-1 (GHARR-1) has been developed for the PARET/ANL (Version 7.3; 2007) using the Monte Carlo N-Particle code (MCNP) to determine the thermal hydraulic data for reactivity insertion transients in the range of 2.0 × 10−3 Δk/k to 5.5 × 10−3 Δk/k. Peak clad and coolant temperatures ranged from 59.18 °C to 112.36 °C and 42.95 °C to 79.42 °C respectively. Calculated safety margins (DNBR) satisfied the MNSR thermal hydraulic design criteria for which no boiling occurs in the reactor core. The generated thermal hydraulic data demonstrated a high inherent safety feature of GHARR-1 for which the high negative reactivity feedback of the moderator limits power excursion and consequently the escalation of the clad temperature.