Abstract
The reactivity of the core is the most global parameter that helps to understand the behavior of a reactor. The precise calculation of core reactivity is the major concern of neutron physicists and engineers and the branch of physics that deals with it must be well understood. Defining it is not as easy as it may initially seem.
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Notes
- 1.
Richard Sanchez: An analysis of the stochasticity of the transport equation, Transport Theory and Statistical Physics, volume 26 (4 and 5), 469–505 (1997). Richard Sanchez (1946–) studied at the Polytechnic School of Barcelona. He completed his PhD at the CEA/SERMA [CEA/Department of Reactors and Applied Mathematics] in 1974, which was followed by a higher doctorate in 1974. He subsequently worked for 5 years at the University of Seattle in the United States, and obtained a further PhD in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Washington in 1981. His PhD in 1979 at CEA/SERMA [Schémas approchés de résolution de l’Equation intégrale du transport à deux dimensions (Approximate schemes for the solving of the integral transport equation in two dimensions)] shows his expertise in the field of numerical models in neutron physics. He was behind several improvements of the APOLLO2 code, and is a worldwide expert in transport theory; he has authored more than fifty papers in prestigious professional journals such as Nuclear Science and Engineering or Transport Theory and Statistical Physics, making him the most renowned French neutron scientist at international level. In 2002, he was appointed Director of Research at CEA where he supervised more than twenty doctorates in the transport theory field. He is also associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Thanks to his proverbial speed of speech and his exceptional character, he is one of the most outstanding figures in French neutron physics.
- 2.
Gordon E. Hansen: American physicist who worked at Los Alamos during the 2nd World War. His work on nuclear bomb ignition became famous through the Hansen equation. He wrote many interesting papers in literature relative to criticality. He further married Marian Konopinski, the sister of Emil John Konopinski, the famous specialist of the beta decay.
- 3.
By definition, a generation involves the loss of the generating neutrons, but the same reasoning may be followed in considering a collision (the generation time is the time between two collisions). In this case, scattering should be viewed as a process that produces a new neutron, just like a fission that produces only one neutron, and the number \( \overline{m} \) coincides with the definition of c secondary neutrons as seen previously, i.e. the number of neutrons produced by collision. In this second approach, the probability of sterile capture P 1 , 0(1) ≡ Σ c /Σ t can be computed, as well as the probabilities of fertile captures P 1 , 1(1) ≡ (Σ s  + p(1)Σ f )/Σ t , P 1 , m ≥ 2(1) ≡ p(m)Σ f /Σ t , where p(m) is the probability of emission of m neutrons by fission, as seen in Chap. 2.
- 4.
See for example (Blaquière 1962).
- 5.
Eugène C. Critoph (1929–1966). B.A.S., M.A.Sc. (British Columbia) joined Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL) in 1953 and worked in the reactor physics field till 1967. He took on several responsibilities at the Chalk River laboratories, becoming director of the Fuel and Material branch, then director of Reactor Physics and advanced products, and later Vice-President of AECL’s Strategic Technology Research Management. Further, in 1986, he was awarded the W. B. Lewis medal by the Canadian Nuclear Association for his extremely extensive research work. He supervised an excellent book: Canada Enters the Nuclear Age, published in 1997, which recounts the history of AECL. On a more personal note, he was believed to be extremely interested in games and puzzles of all types.
- 6.
For details on the physics of the MOX fuel, refer to Paul Reuss : Etude physique du recyclage du plutonium dans les réacteurs à eau [Physical studies of the recycling of plutonium in water reactors], PhD thesis (1979) and CEA technical report CEA-N-2098.
- 7.
Fuel pin diameter: 0.82 cm, zirconium cladding diameter: 0.92 cm, lattice pitch filled with water at 305 °C: 1.26 cm, calculated using the Wigner-Seitz method with zero-buckling.
- 8.
Dominique Akl : Modèle du réacteur réduit pour le calcul de la variation du flux et de la réactivité résultant d’une perturbation localisée dans un milieu multiplicateur à neutrons rapides [Reduced reactor model for calculating the flux variation and the resulting reactivity for a perturbation in a fast-neutron multiplying medium], PhD thesis, University of Orsay (1972). Perturbation theory is extensively used in this thesis.
Bibliography
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Marguet, S. (2017). Nuclear Reactor Reactivity. In: The Physics of Nuclear Reactors. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59560-3_11
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