ANALYTICAL DERIVATION OF CRITICAL CONDITIONS FROM ONE-GROUP DIFFUSION THEORY FOR THE SPHERICAL GASEOUS-CORE REACTOR,
Abstract
Critical conditions for the infinite and finie reflected, externally-moderated, gaseous-core, spherical reactor are derived analytically from two-region one-group diffusion theory. The source of thermal neutrons is determined from Fermi age theory. The critical conditions so obtained are quite complicated and difficult to evaluate by hand calculations. They are programmed for the IBM 1620 computer and critical masses for a pure U235-D2O reactor are computed for a reasonable range of core radii and moderator-reflector thicknesses. It is shown that for a gaseous-core reactor, two-group diffusion theory gives the identical results as one-group diffusion theory, and that the one-group results are in close agreement with multi-group results presented in the literature. The effect of using UF6 as a gaseous fuel, uniformly mixed in the core cavity with various amounts of H2 gas, is considered for the finite reactor. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1963
- Accession Number
- AD0418559
Entities
People
- Gerald T. Mccall
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology