Characterization of Neutron Leakage Probability, keff, and Critical Core Surface Mass Density of Small Reactor Assemblies Through the Trombay Criticality Formula

Abstract
The Trombay criticality formula (TCF) has been derived by incorporating a number of well-known concepts of criticality physics to enable prediction of changes in critical size or keff following alterations in geometrical and physical parameters of uniformly reflected small reactor assemblies characterized by large neutron leakage from the core. The variant parameters considered are size, shape, density and diluent concentration of the core, and density and thickness of the reflector. The mass-to-surface-area ratio of the core, is essentially a measure of the product ρr extended to nonspherical systems and plays a dominant role in the TCF. The functional dependence of keff on σ/σc, the system size relative to critical, is expressed in the TCF through two alternative representations, namely the modified Wigner rational form and the exponential form as follows: where the k∞ of the critical system. The quantity in the square brackets is close to unity and Z is a parameter weakly dependent on both the ...

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: