Kernforschungsanlage Julich Gesellschaft MIT Beschrankter Haftung

Hans-Jurgen Hantke

Claus-Benedict Von Der Decken

Walter Sturmer

A method of controlling the reactivity of a gas-cooled core reactor the core of which consists of a pile of poured balls of equal diameter of fuel material which are withdrawn from the pile in downward direction and, if desired, are again added from above in conformity with the extent to which the pile of fuel balls has burned off. The method is characterized primarily in that balls which consist of absorbing material and have a diameter shorter than the diameter D of the balls of fuel material are introduced into the poured pile, the diameter d.sub.A of the balls of absorbing material being d.sub.Z .ltoreq.d.sub.A .ltoreq.d.sub.z +xd, preferably d.sub.Z &lt;d.sub.A &lt;d.sub.Z &lt;+xd.sub.Z if d.sub.Z = D(2.sqroot.3-1) and representing the diameter of the maximum possible ball which can be placed in the densest ball packing between three interengaging balls of fuel material, and when d.sub.Z +xd.sub.Z =D(.sqroot.2-1).

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Ketsch, Germany

Hans-Jurgen Hantke