A method to calculate the maturity time for low neutron source nuclear reactor startup simulations
Author(s)
Gordon, TL
Williams, MMR
Eaton, MD
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
An approximate method for determining the maturity time is presented for applications in low neutron source nuclear reactor startup simulations. This new method relies only on the calculation of the mean neutron density and does not require the additional calculation of the variance in the neutron density as the traditional method does. The most accurate method for determining the safe neutron source strength, required to sufficiently mitigate the probability of a rogue transient during nuclear reactor startup, uses the Pál-Bell equations. However, as space and energy dependencies are included, the numerical computation become computationally demanding. Therefore, approximate methods that significantly reduce the computation time and improve the computational efficiency of the simulation while remaining very accurate are extremely useful. The approximate method for determining the maturity time presented in this study has shown excellent agreement with traditional methods while offering an order of magnitude reduction in computation time.
Date Issued
2025-02-01
Date Acceptance
2024-04-21
Citation
Nuclear Science and Engineering, 2025, 199 (2), pp.223-238
ISSN
1943-748X
Publisher
Taylor and Francis Group
Start Page
223
End Page
238
Journal / Book Title
Nuclear Science and Engineering
Volume
199
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2024 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
License URL
Subjects
KINETICS
Low neutron source
maturity time
nuclear reactor startup
Nuclear Science & Technology
P & aacute;l-Bell
Science & Technology
source multiplier
Technology
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2024-07-01