Patchy nuclear chain reactions

Understanding and predicting fluctuations of the neutron population within a nuclear reactor is of fundamental importance for nuclear safety, especially in connection with reactor control at startup and shutdown. The study presents experiments and Monte Carlo simulations of persistent neutron fluctu...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Eric Dumonteil, Rian Bahran, Theresa Cutler, Benjamin Dechenaux, Travis Grove, Jesson Hutchinson, George McKenzie, Alexander McSpaden, Wilfried Monange, Mark Nelson, Nicholas Thompson, Andrea Zoia
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2021-07-01
Series:Communications Physics
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-021-00654-9
Description
Summary:Understanding and predicting fluctuations of the neutron population within a nuclear reactor is of fundamental importance for nuclear safety, especially in connection with reactor control at startup and shutdown. The study presents experiments and Monte Carlo simulations of persistent neutron fluctuations and correlations (stochastic noise and neutron clustering) in nuclear reactors which are interpreted by stochastic modelling based on branching random walks.
ISSN:2399-3650