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THE BEHAVIOR OF A REACTOR AT PROMPT CRITICAL WHEN THE REACTIVITY IS A LINEAR FUNCTION OF TIME

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:4302385
Simple analytic formulas are derived for the values of the prompt neutron density, the delayed neutron emitter densities, and the period in a reactor at the instant it has become prompt critical under the assumption that it has been brought to a prompt critical state from an initially critical state by introducing reactivity at the constant rate of a dollar per second. For a fixed value of a, these formulas are asymptotic with respect to small values of the dimensionless parameter al/ BETA , in which 1 is the mean lifetime of a neutron in the reactor and BETA is the fraction of fission neutrons which are delayed. For fast reactors, the quantity l/ BETA is generally small, so that the formulas should be useful in estimating the power rise at prompt critical unless the rate of introduction of reactivity is quite large. (auth)
Research Organization:
Nuclear Development Corp. of America, White Plains, N.Y.
NSA Number:
NSA-12-011840
OSTI ID:
4302385
Report Number(s):
NDA-14-128
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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