A sub-critical wait-time experiment to validate stochastic nuclear reactor kinetics models for low neutron source Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) start-up simulations
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Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to present a theoretical sub-critical wait-time experiment that may be used to validate stochastic nuclear reactor kinetics models which compute the neutron population probability distribution. The regulation governing many zero-power reactors prohibits super-critical nuclear reactor operation. This paper shows that a desirable wait-time probability distribution can be computed by only modifying the neutron source strength. An analytical model, which ignores the contribution of delayed neutron precursors, is presented. Additionally, a six-delayed neutron precursor group model using the Pál–Bell equations is used to investigate the relationship between the nuclear reactor system parameters and the resulting wait-time probability distribution. Finally, this paper shows that two neutron energy group models can be collapsed down to an equivalent single (one speed or mono-energetic) neutron energy group model which accurately reproduce the same wait-time probability distribution.
Date Issued
2024-09
Online Publication Date
2024-06-10T15:38:20Z
Date Acceptance
2024-05-09
Citation
Progress in Nuclear Energy, 2024, 174
ISSN
1878-4224
Publisher
Elsevier
Journal / Book Title
Progress in Nuclear Energy
Volume
174
Copyright Statement
© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License URI
Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2024.105268
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
105268
Date Publish Online
2024-06-05