Virtual analogue of Godiva critical Assembly

Virtual analog prototype

Lady Godiva is an experimental pulsed nuclear reactor built at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The reactor core was a ball of highly enriched (up to 93.7%) uranium-235 weighing 53 kg, divided into three parts, and with a cylindrical hole inside. During the experiments, the parts were brought together, and a cylinder of uranium-235 was introduced into the hole, while the device briefly reached criticality and a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction began in it, accompanied by a burst of neutron and gamma radiation. Despite the fact that most of the actions with the device were performed remotely, due to the lack of biological protection, the device remained extremely dangerous. Since the human body is a good neutron moderator, the presence of people in the immediate vicinity of the assembly can lead to a critical or supercritical state of the assembly, triggering a burst of neutron and gamma radiation.

An experimental critical facility is expensive and requires complex certification procedures to be usable. In addition, only specially trained personnel can perform assembly operations. The virtual analogue allows you to train students in the nuclear industry in the absence of a real assembly with the ability to perform any operational actions.

Critical assembly of Godiva in virtual reality

In 2020, within the framework of the joint project with Rosatom, "Creation of virtual analogues of elements of nuclear facilities for personnel training", work began on the creation of a virtual analogue of Godiva's critical assembly using virtual reality technologies.

The project is currently under development.

The possibility of carrying out three laboratory works is planned:

• Laboratory work to achieve a critical state using a neutron reflector;
• Laboratory work to determine the parameters of a neutron burst during rapid reactivity injection;
• Laboratory work on the irradiation of experimental samples.