Effects of Non-uniform Moderator Temperature on Core Power Distribution in Accelerator Driven Reactors

In a thermal reactor with moderators at different temperatures, a difference arises in the average speeds of thermalized neutrons between the high temperature part and the low temperature part of the moderator, and the non-uniformity of the average speed of thermalized neutrons may effect changes in the spatial dependence of the thermal neutron flux in a core. To investigate the thermal neutron flux in the case the average speed of thermalized neutrons is dependent on the position within a core, time-dependent two-group diffusion equations were applied. The influence of a nonuniform moderator temperature on the core power distribution was investigated about a graphite-moderated subcritical reactor driven by periodic injections of pulsed fast neutrons. The cylindrical reactor model by which a high temperature part of a core that has a spallation target at the center is enclosed by a low temperature part of a core was used. Changes in the core power distribution were calculated. It turned out that the momentary increases of a thermal power density caused by periodic injections of pulsed fast neutrons increase as the difference in the average speeds of thermalized neutrons in the high temperature part and the low temperature part of a core increases.     

Effects of Spatial Harmonics on Thermal Neutron Spectra Measured by Time-of-Flight Method

Spatial effect—the variations in space of transient neutron flux noted in pulsed neutron experiments, and which is ascribable to the occurrence in moderator of spatial harmonics—is studied on the measured flight time spectra of neutrons reentering the atmosphere from parametrically varied depths of a graphite moderator. Measurements were made using moderator slabs of two different axial lengths, to examine the influence of differences in moderator size on the spatial effect. The master equation representing the scalar neutron flux as function of time and energy is solved by a semi-analytic method that takes account of spatial harmonics. Simulation of the solution thus obtained of the master equation proved to reproduce the measured flight time spectra with good accuracy. It was indicated that the spatial effect on the thermal neutron spectrum is stronger with a larger than with a smaller moderator slab. The neutron temperature in graphite moderator was calculated by formula fitted in Maxwellian distribution to the peaks of the thermal neutron spectra. It was indicated that in a graphite moderator of 120 cm axial length, spatial harmonics caused a variation of more than 40 K in neutron temperature between depths in moderator differing by 30 cm.