Analysis on the neutron kinetics for a molten salt reactor

Abstract

The neutron kinetics of the molten salt reactor is significantly influenced by the fuel salt flow, which leads to the analysis methods for the conventional reactors using solid fuels not being applicable for the molten salt reactors. In this study, a neutron kinetic model considering the fuel salt flow is established based on the neutron diffusion theory, which consists of two-group neutron diffusion equations for the fast and thermal neutron fluxes and six-group balance equations for delayed neutron precursors. The temperature feedback on the neutron kinetics is considered by introducing a heat transfer model in the core, in which the group constants which are dependent on the temperature are calculated by the code DRAGON. The mathematical equations are discretized and numerically calculated by developing a code, in which the fully implicit scheme is adopted for the time-dependent terms, and the power law scheme is for the convection–diffusion terms. The neutron kinetics is conducted during three transient conditions including the rods drop transient, the pump coastdown transient and the inlet temperature drop transient. The relative power changes and the distributions of the temperature, neutron fluxes and delayed neutron precursors under these three different transient conditions are obtained in the study. The results provide some valuable information for the research and design of this new generation reactor.