PWS: an efficient code system for solving space-independent nuclear reactor dynamics

Abstract

The reactor kinetics equations are reduced to a differential equation in matrix form convenient for explicit power series solution involving no approximations beyond the usual space-independent assumption. The coefficients of the series have been obtained from a straightforward recurrence relation. Numerical evaluation is performed by PWS (power series solution) code, written in Visual FORTRAN for a personal computer. The results are applied to the step reactivity insertion, ramp input, zigzag input, and oscillatory reactivity changes. When the reactivity is given, including the case in which the feedback reactivity is a function of neutron density, the developed method can provide a straightforward procedure for computing reactor dynamics problems. The solution of this method was compared to some other analytical and numerical solutions of the point reactor kinetics equations; the results proved that the approach is both efficient and accurate to several significant figures.