AN EVALUATION OF FLUX FLATTENING IN SGR CORES

Technical Report · Thu Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1960

OSTI ID:4071449

Axford, R A

Flux flattening in SGR cores is evaluated from the pointof-view of neutron economy, and its economic feasibility is established. Buckling distributions that yield a specified degree of thermal-neutron flux flattening with a minimum amount of core fuel investment are derived from a variational principle in which the volume integral of the buckling distribution is minimized. These distributions indicate that, in strong degrees of flattening, moderate changes in the core power obtained during the flattening are accompanied by large changes in the core fuel investment, even when those fuel distributions which yield a specified degree of flattening with minimum fuel investment are used. The economic feasibility of flux flattening in SGR cores is established by computing the relative power cost of flattened cores with an unflattened core as the base case. It is shown and concluded that a moderate degree of flux flattening in the radial direction of a cylindrical core constitutes the economic optimum. (auth)

• Research Organization: Atomics International. Div. of North American Aviation, Inc., Canoga Park, Calif.
• DOE Contract Number: AT(11-1)-GEN-8
• NSA Number: NSA-15-012566
• OSTI ID: 4071449
• Report Number(s): NAA-SR-4531
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

BUCKLING
CYLINDERS
DISTRIBUTION
ECONOMICS
EFFICIENCY
FLATTENING
FUELS
NEUTRON FLUX
POWER
REACTOR CORE
REACTOR TECHNOLOGY
REACTORS
SGR
THERMAL NEUTRONS