Contributions to the IRPhE Database from Experiments on the UK Dimple Reactor

A paper presented earlier in this session described the launch of the International Reactor Physics Experimental Benchmarks Evaluation (IRPhE)[1] database of experimental benchmarks. This paper describes two experiments that have been evaluated and accepted for inclusion in the first release of the database. The experiments were performed on the DIMPLE low power reactor at the U.KA.E.A's Winfrith site in 1983 and 1987 respectively. The two DIMPLE assemblies chosen for benchmarking are: 1. DIMPLE S01, two cores are considered S01A and S01B. These cores consisted of cylindrical assemblies containing 3 W/o {sup 235}U enriched fuel pins on a square lattice pitch of 1.32 cm{sup 2}. DIMPLE S06, again two cores are considered S06A and S06B. These cores were cruciform in shape and simulated 12 core edge PWR fuel elements. Here, the assemblies contained 3 W/o {sup 235}U enriched fuel pins on a square lattice pitch of 1.2507 cm. Sufficient information has been provided in the IRPhE benchmark description and evaluation to allow comprehensive modelling of the DIMPLE series assemblies and to allow comparisons with measurements that have well defined, evaluated, uncertainties. This report gives an overview of the DIMPLE reactor, a description of the measurements made in the above experimental configurationsmore » and presents some selected results from a sample analysis of the defined benchmarks. (authors)« less