Calculation of neutron flux and neutron visualization in a spherical reactor core applying a conceptual approach and drawing a comparison with the results obtained by the CITATION code

• Main Author: Seyed Alireza Mousavi Shirazi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. 2021-01-01
• Series: International Journal of Advanced Nuclear Reactor Design and Technology
• Subjects: Flux; Neutron; Spherical reactor core
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468605021000223

In this research, a conceptual approach is presented to obtain the neutron flux at a reactor core. A simple spherical reactor core was analyzed by a mathematical model defined by Delphi programming language to derive the neutron flux and visualize the position of neutrons through this approach. This visualization was performed based on the Monte Carlo methods to estimate the position of neutrons. By the presented approach, the neutron flux was computed in all components, and different layers of the spherical reactor core and the traces of collided neutrons were visualized for a wide range of neutron energies as accurately as possible. Besides, this spherical reactor core was simulated by the CITATION nuclear code to obtain the neutron flux. Afterward, the results obtained by the two methods were compared, which showed that the fluxes obtained by the presented approach were in agreement with those of the CITATION code. This simulation can be generalized for every spherical nuclear reactor core having various and optional dimensions, and the neutronic calculations can be performed for it.