Control rod material effect on safety parameters of research reactors

Control rods provide adjustable manipulation of reactivity and prevent fission reaction from accelerating beyond control. In this paper, the Monte Carlo Code, MCNP6 was used to study the effect of using various control rod materials on the main safety parameters of a typical plate type material test research reactor. Three types of control rod materials were considered, Ag-In-Cd, B4C, and Hafnium. Parameters investigated are reactivity worth, excess reactivity and shutdown margin of absorber materials. The model was used to evaluate the effect of various materials on the flux and power shaping of the core. The resulting multiplication factor for this study was compared with previous work and found acceptable. It was found that boron carbide has the largest effect on safety parameters, as well as flux and power distribution.