Godiva device
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The Godiva device was an unshielded, pulsed nuclear reactor originally situated at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), New Mexico, U.S. It was one of a number of criticality devices within Technical Area 18 (TA-18). Specifically, it was used to produce bursts of neutrons and gamma rays for irradiating test samples.
The radiation source within the Godiva device was a fissile metallic mass (usually highly enriched 235U), about 15cm in diameter. This was located at the top of a 2m high metal tower. The burst of radiation was produced when a piston of radioactive metal was quickly inserted and extracted from a cavity within the larger radioactive mass. During the time these two masses were combined, they formed a critical mass and a nuclear chain reaction was briefly sustained.
On 3 February 1954 and 12 February 1957, accidental criticality excursions occurred causing damage to the device, but fortunately only insignifcant exposures to personnel. This original Godiva device, known as Lady Godiva was irrepairable and was replaced by the Godiva II.
In December 2002, the U.S. Department of Energy announced it was to move its TA-18 testing equipment from the LANL to the Device Assembly Facility (DAF) at the Nevada Test Site (NTS).
[edit] External links
- Test Plan for Godiva Move from LANL TA-18 to NTS DAF
- Criticality Experiments Facility Project
- A Review of Criticality Accidents: 2000 Revision
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