Databases for experimental information
GAIN has compiled a list of key legacy databases to help developers advance their nuclear energy technologies toward commercialization while ensuring the continued safe, reliable, and economic operation of the existing nuclear fleet. If you need assistance regarding legacy documents, please reach out to Holly Powell, Operations Manager, at [email protected] or 208-357-6812.
list of databases
ETTD — EBR-II Transient Testing Database
Managed by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), the EBR-II Transient Test Database (ETTD) is an archive of data and documents describing transient tests performed in the EBR-II reactor during the 1984-1987 time period. The database provides links to tests that are grouped in five testing periods (each with a different core load configuration) under which they were conducted, or several testing categories including:
- Reactivity feedback characterization tests
- Loss of flow with scram and transition to natural circulation
- Loss of flow without reactor scram with different levels of severity
- Dynamic frequency response tests
- Loss-of-heat-sink tests (with or without scram)
- Steam drum pressure reduction tests
- Plant inherent control tests (to demonstrate “load-following” features of the reactor)
Requests for access are individually reviewed and may take some time to complete.
FFTF — Passive Safety Testing & Metal Fuel Irradiation Database
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has been in the process of preserving, protecting, securing, and placing in electronic format documents and plant data generated for the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) reactor plant, especially passive safety tests and metal fuel tests. The database system has been constructed to store and retrieve FFTF-related reports, documents and drawings, and FFTF operational data.
There are two major divisions to the database system — information that has been cleared for public release and those documents, drawings, operational data, etc., that have not, which are stored in secured databases. The information immediately available on to the public falls into three categories:
- FFTF – general
- Passive safety testing in the FFTF
- Metal fuel test assemblies irradiated in the FFTF (IFR-1 and the MFF series of tests)
FIPD — EBR-II Fuels Irradiation & Physics Database
Managed by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), the FIPD is an organized collection of EBR-II test pin data and documentation. The database includes pin operation conditions calculated using a collection of ANL analysis codes developed during the IFR program, including axial distributions for power, temperatures, fluences, burnup, and isotopic densities. The database also contains pin-measured data from post-irradiation examination, including pin-fission gas release and gas chemistry measurements, and axial distributions from profilometry, gamma scans, and neutron radiography. There is also an extensive collection of documents associated with different pins and experiments, including raw PIE data, design descriptions, safety analysis, and operational reports. Access is available by application.
FRDB – art fAST rEACTOR dATABASES
Databases developed by the Argonne Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE) Division are described here, and are accessible using Argonne account credentials, after access requests are approved. Argonne collaboration accounts can be provided to external users.
MSRE — Molten Salt Reactor Component Reliability Database
Managed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), this database is currently being populated with operations, maintenance, and experimental data and should be completed in 2021.
NaSCoRD — Sodium System & Component Reliability Database
Managed by Sandia National Labs (SNL), the NaSCoRD database was developed as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Advanced Reactor Technologies program. The project’s mission is to re-create the capabilities of the legacy Centralized Reliability Database Organization (CREDO) database. The CREDO database provided a record of component design and performance documentation across various systems that used sodium as a working fluid but was lost by its US custodian in the 1990s. Raw data of US origin was only recently recovered from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) with whom the US had established a joint database. This NaSCoRD database uses reconstructed CREDO data (CREDO-I) with reliability information sourced from operational documents, unusual occurrence reports, and design documents, called CREDO-II. Access to NaSCoRD can currently be requested through the DOE-NE ART sodium reactor program manager. Request access by emailing [email protected].
NDMAS – nUCLEAR dATA mANAGEMENT AND aNALYSIS sYSTEM
Managed by Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Nuclear Data Management and Analysis System (NDMAS) imports, tracks qualification, graphs, analyzes, stores, and delivers data collected as part of INL nuclear fuel and materials research programs. To request access, click here and include in the body of the email which program data you would like access to.
OPTD — Out of Pile Transient Testing Database
OPTD is an organized, searchable archive of records describing a series of over 150 out-of-pile furnace transient tests conducted on metallic fuel samples at the Alpha-Gamma Hot Cell Facility (AGHCF) at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). Fuel pins (or pin segments) irradiated in EBR-II were placed into one of two furnace apparatuses constructed in the AGHCF and overheated to examine the fuel-cladding compatibility of each sample, margins to failure, and failure mechanisms. The report ANL-ART-217, “Out-of-Pile Furnace Tests on Fast Reactor Metallic Fuels Conducted at the AGHCF, provides at-a-glance summary information for each of the out-of-pile furnace tests, including information about the tested fuel samples, test conditions, purpose of the tests, and key results. Where available, fuller detail and primary records describing the design, planning, and execution of the tests as well as test summary reports, experimenter’s notes, and post-test sample metallographic records are included in this database. OPTD access is limited to U.S. citizens by application.
TREXR — TREAT Experiment Relational Database
Managed by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), the TREXR database is an organized, searchable collection of information that describes the hundreds of experiments conducted on nuclear reactor fuels in the Transient Reactor Test (TREAT) facility beginning in 1960. The experiments generally investigated the response of nuclear fuel samples to severe conditions similar to those associated with reactor accidents. The TREAT reactor was specifically designed and operated to provide such conditions. Investigation, understanding, and predictability of the transient response of nuclear fuels is important in supporting the design and licensing of safe nuclear reactors. Access is available by application.
zPRD – zERO pOWER rEACTOR dATABASE
ZPRD is an organized, searchable collection of information related to the critical experiment programs conducted between 1955 and 1990 at ZPR-3, ZPR-6, ZPR-9 and ZPPR to support fast reactor design. The primary focus of these programs was liquid metal fast reactors, but the programs also included gas-cooled fast reactors, space power reactors, nuclear propulsion, fundamental fast reactor physics measurements and criticality safety related to the integral fast reactor program. Experimental measurements included criticality, sodium void worth, control rod worth, reaction rate distributions, neutron spectra, simulations of accident scenarios, and various other parameters. The database includes the original facility records required to construct high fidelity as-built models of the experiments, the as-built models themselves along with past results, and reports documenting the modeling and measurements taken. The models, facility records, experimental results and related documents in the database are used for software validation and testing of nuclear data. A guidebook that discusses the available experimental records and the more common types of experiments performed at ZPR-3, ZPR-6, ZPR-9 and ZPPR is suggested as the starting point for new users.
This database is currently under development.