Neutron flux simulation of a one-dimensional reactor zone taking into account xenon generation

Abstract

The energy in nuclear power plants is produced by thermal fission. It is extremely important to be able to monitor the processes in the reactor to ensure the safety and reliability of the power plant. One of the main traits of the reactor core is neutron flux. It changes in time and space therefore it is crucial to be able to simulate its changes with computer codes. In the research work a program code was established in the Matlab software with which the neutron flux of a one-dimensional zone can be simulated with homogenous and heterogenic zone parameters as well. The code is written using the one-group one-dimensional time- and space-dependent diffusion equation. The equation of an average delayed neutron group and xenon and iodine distributions was also included in the system to give a more precise look on the problem. The main innovation in the code is that numerical methods were used to solve the problem: the finite difference approach was applied for the place-dependent and for the time-dependent solution. The advantage of this code compared to other ones is that one-dimensional zones can be simulated in a really short time and it still gives a precise solution because of the complex numerical methods used.