Nuclear reactor analysis

This comprehensive introduction covers the fundamental scientific principles governing nuclear fission reactors and the methods used in modern nuclear reactor analysis and design. The book is divided into four parts: Part 1 presents a relatively elementary and qualitative discussion of the basic concepts of nuclear fission chain reactions, including a brief review of relevant nuclear physics and a survey of modern power reactors. Part 2 develops a simple model of nuclear reactor behavior, assuming that the neutrons sustaining the fission chain reactions diffuse from point to point in the reactor in such a way that their energy and direction of motion can be ignored (one-speed diffusion theory). Part 3 generalizes this model to develop the primary tool of nuclear reactor analysis, multigroup diffusion theory. Part 4 illustrates the methods of nuclear reactor analysis by considering several important applications in reactor engineering, including a brief introduction to reactor core design. The text is written exclusively in S1 units and features numerous problems and exercises, many requiring digital computation.