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Perfetti, C.

Publications and source records attributed to Perfetti, C..

4 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Investigating the AGN-201M research reactor's unique dominance ratio

The AGN-201M reactor is a small, thermal spectrum reactor located at the University of New Mexico (UNM). It is moderated by polyethylene, reflected by graphite, with fuel comprised of uranium microspheres embedded in polyethylene plates that are separated by an aluminum baffle. The dominance ratio of a multiplying system is the ratio of the first higher-mode eigenvalue to the fundamental, k{sub 1}/k{sub 0}. It is a key parameter in characterizing the rate of convergence, analyzing system stability, and determining how tightly coupled the system's neutron fission is. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the system's unusually low dominance ratio of 0.632. This investigation varied the reactor's physical parameters, such as the fuel geometry, fuel density, and reflector thickness, and examined their impact on the reactor's dominance ratio. Additionally, this study examined neutronically similar systems in hopes of identifying common causes for systems with low dominance ratios. The reason why the dominance ratio of the reactor is small compared to larger thermal reactors was determined to be because of its significantly smaller geometry and the composition of the fuel plates. The reflector's effect on the dominance ratio is small in comparison to the other factors, but was found to have a non-zero effect. Furthermore, the AGN-201M was found to have a significantly lower dominance ratio than systems in which it shares a very high (c{sub k} >95%) degree of neutronic similarity.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Development of continuous-energy eigenvalue sensitivity coefficient calculation methods in the shift Monte Carlo Code

Three methods for calculating continuous-energy eigenvalue sensitivity coefficients were developed and implemented into the Shift Monte Carlo code within the SCALE code package. The methods were used for two small-scale test problems and were evaluated in terms of speed, accuracy, efficiency, and memory requirements. A promising new method for calculating eigenvalue sensitivity coefficients, known as the CLUTCH method, was developed and produced accurate sensitivity coefficients with figures of merit that were several orders of magnitude larger than those from existing methods. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Determining importance weighting functions for Contributon theory eigenvalue sensitivity coefficient methodologies

This study introduced two new approaches for calculating the F*(r) importance weighting function for Contributon and CLUTCH eigenvalue sensitivity coefficient calculations, and compared them in terms of accuracy and applicability. The necessary levels of F*(r) mesh refinement and mesh convergence for obtaining accurate eigenvalue sensitivity coefficients were determined for two preliminary problems through two parametric studies, and the results of these studies suggest that a sufficiently accurate F*(r) mesh for calculating eigenvalue sensitivity coefficients can be obtained for these problems with only a small increase in problem runtime. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗