POWER BURSTS IN NUCLEAR REACTORS

TL;DRAbstract

It is shown that some of the properties of a power burst in a reactor are independent of either the feedback mechanism or the pile kinetics, and may be described quantitatively with no assumption other than that the pile kinetic equations are nonlinear. The theory refers primarily to the shape of the burst and is applicable chiefly to the faster transients observed in SPERT, KEWB, and B0RAX. The data which may be described theoretically in this manner include plots of maximun reactor power times period against the energy to peak of power burst (SPERT, KEWB), of total energy of burst against the period times the maximum power (BORAX), and of the burst width against period (SPERT). Use of the pile kinetic equations allows one to obtain a simple algebraic expression for the reactivity compensated at the time of peak power as a function of reciprocal period alpha . This expression is in excellent agreement with experiment for the faster SPERT transients and exhibits the correct form of dep

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