A re-visitation of space asymptotic theory in neutron transport

Abstract

The space asymptotic theory has constituted a powerful tool for the determination of neutron energy spectra in nuclear reactors, which are the basis of the generation of group constants for the neutronic core design. The method can provide a deep physical insight into the basics of reactor physics and may still give new ideas for modern computational methods. This contribution presents a re-visitation of the method, illustrating its most important general results, some of which may not be well known. In particular, the criticality theory and the space–energy separability theorem are presented. The validity of such theorem is extended also to the net neutron current. The procedure allows to generalize the Fick’s law with a consistent definition of the energy-dependent diffusion coefficient. Some numerical examples are given in simple multigroup models to illustrate the relevant features of the theory.