Abstract
An initial experiment simulating a 58 mm thick LMFBR fuel debris bed has been performed in liquid sodium in which the UO/sub 2/ particles composing the bed were internally heated by nuclear fission. The experiment was performed in the Annular Core Pulse Reactor (ACPR), as part of Sandia Laboratories' program examining the safety of advanced reactors. Supporting research included experiments utilizing other power sources and simulated debris and coolants, analysis and modeling, and auxiliary measurement of material properties and interactions. The specific power attained during the in-reactor experiment ranged up to about 1 kW/kg of UO/sub 2/ while the bulk sodium temperatures ranged up to 838 K. The particle-to-fluid interface does not appear to offer significant resistance to heat transfer at these power levels. The heat transfer behavior of the bed was quite reproducible, and edge effects appeared to be small.

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