Ingegneria Nucleare

The course has the purpose to provide the basic knowledge on neutron transport phenomena in the core of a nuclear reactor, with main reference to the steady state and dynamic aspects having relevance for reactor design.

The main topics of the module are:

• reminders about fundamentals of Nuclear Physics and on the interaction of neutrons with matter; definition of cross sections; the Doppler effect;
  
• the neutron continuity equation, the Fick’s law and the neutron diffusion equation; analysis of the pulsed-neutron experiments in different geometries; steady-state problems with neutron source; the Green’s function; the thermal utilization factor, f;
  
• the neutron slowing-down in an infinite medium, with and without absorption; the resonance escape probability factor, p; the fast fission factor;
  
• the energy dependent diffusion equation; the Fermi age theory; the multi-energy group (i.e., multi-group) diffusion equations;
  
• definition of the multiplication factor; the critical reactor (time dependent one-group theory with prompt neutrons only and theory based on the steady-state equation); multi-group criticality problems;
  
• the reflector theory; the problem of an axial control rod (outline of the perturbation theory); the Xe and Sm poisoning of the reactor;
  
• the delayed neutrons; the reactor kinetics theory with the age-diffusion approach; 
  
• outline of Monte Carlo methods.
  

Exercises: use of an open source Monte Carlo code for the calculation of some relevant parameters of the reactor physics.