Nuclear Reactor Analysis

A classic textbook for an introductory course in nuclear reactor analysis that introduces the nuclear engineering student to the basic scientific principles of nuclear fission chain reactions and lays a foundation for the subsequent application of these principles to the nuclear design and analysis of reactor cores. This text introduces the student to the fundamental principles governing nuclear fission chain reactions in a manner that renders the transition to practical nuclear reactor design methods most natural. The authors stress throughout the very close interplay between the nuclear analysis of a reactor core and those nonnuclear aspects of core analysis, such as thermalhydrolics or materials studies, which play a major role in determining a reactor design.

Part 1: Introductory Concepts Of Nuclear Reactor Analysis

Chapter 1: An Introduction to Nuclear Power Generation 3

Chapter 2: The Nuclear Physics of Fission Chain Reactions 10

Chapter 3: Fission Chain Reactions and Nuclear Reactor--An Introduction 74

Part 2: The One-Speed Diffusion Model Of A Nuclear Reactor

Chapter 4: Neutron Transport 103

Chapter 5: The One-Speed Diffusion-Theory Model 149

Chapter 6: Nuclear Reactor Kinetics 233

Part 3: The Multigroup Diffusion Method

Chapter 7: Multigroup Diffusion Theory 285

Chapter 8: Fast-Spectrum Calculations and Fast-Group Constants 315

Chapter 9: Thermal Spectrum Calculations and Thermal Group Constants 375

Chapter 10: Cell Calculations for Heterogeneous Core Lattices 398

Part 4: An Introduction To Nuclear Reactor-Core Design

Chapter 11: General Aspects of Nuclear Reactor Core Design 447

Chapter 12: Thermo-Hydraulic Analysis of Nuclear Reactor Cores 467

Chapter 13: The Calculation of Core Power Distributions 515

Chapter 14: Reactivity Control 537

Chapter 15: Analysis of Core-Composition Changes 566

Appendices

A. Some useful Nuclear Data 605

B. Some useful Mathematical Formulas 611

C. Step Functions, Delta Functions, and Other Exotic Beasts 613

D. Some Properties of Special Functions 616

E. Some Assorted Facts on Linear Operators 621

F. An Introduction to Matrices and Matrix Algebra 626

G. An Introduction to Laplace Transforms 629

H. Typical Nuclear Power Reactor Data 634

I. Units Utilized in Text 636

Index 639

James Johnson Duderstadt was the President of the University of Michigan from 1988 to 1996. He currently holds the title of President Emeritus and University Professor of Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan. Louis J. Hamilton is the author of Nuclear Reactor Analysis, published by Wiley.