Assessment of the neutron flux stability in a high power BN-type reactor in terms of modal spatial kinetics

Abstract

The article discusses the neutron flux stability in the core of a high-power sodium-cooled fast reactor (of the BN-type) without feedbacks. The importance of this problem for high-power BN-type reactors is associated with the specific features of the layout of their cores, including a large diameter and height/diameter ratio about 5. The technique used to substantiate the stability of neutron fields is based on the analysis of the spectrum of the matrix of the system of spatial kinetics equations describing the core of a high-power BN-type reactor without feedbacks. A computational model of the spatial kinetics of a high-power BN-type reactor has been developed in the modal approximation based on the representation of an unsteady flux as a sum of orthogonal functions multiplied by time-dependent amplitudes. The eigenfunctions of the conditionally critical problem are used in the diffusion approximation, which in the discrete case form a complete system. The spectrum of the matrix of the system of ordinary differential equations describing the spatial kinetics of the reactor has been calculated. It is shown that the neutron flux in the core of a high-power BN-type reactor without feedbacks is stable. Test calculations have illustrated the damping of perturbations of the power distribution for a reactor in a critical state.