Optimal Parameter Ratios Guaranteeing Safety During Reactor Startup

Abstract

A method and relations are proposed for determining the optimal ratio of the parameters for putting a reactor into a critical state safely: the initial subcriticality before reactor startup, the reactivity variation step, the initial pulse frequency, the initial counting rate of the number of pulses, the frequency of the spurious signal pulse, and the sensitivity of the pulsed startup channel, the neutron-flux density at the detector site, the neutron source strength, and the frequency of the pulses in the startup channel that gives the required speed of formation of the emergency signal according to the time interval as the reactor is put into a critical state. The methods and formulas for determining the optimal parameters are obtained taking into account the statistical nature of the frequency of the detector pulses and of the spurious output signal.