Re:Quiz & Burning Graphite/ Wigner Energy

[julian.ginniver@ukaea.org.uk]

Trying to keep it brief,



The build up of Wigner energy only occurs in low temperature reactors.  It

does not occur at the temperatures in UK power producing reactors.  I'm not

sure of the operating parameters of the RBMKs but based on my undertsanding

a Wigner release should not occur in this type of reactor either.  The

issue at Windscale was the presence of the fuel and other items in the

reactor during the Wigner release (annealing) of the graphite.  The limited

operating instructions available at that time required the temperature to

be kept low enough to ensure that the fuel cladding was not damaged.  The

complicating factors were the limited number of thermocouples available,

the fact that their were based on the requirements of the operating reactor

rather than for the Wigner release (i.e. they were in the wrong place for

the highest temperature).  And also that the process did not occur evenly

across the pile, resulting in the potential for hot spots.



Regards

     Julian Ginniver



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