Abstract
This paper presents the single-point kinetic and thermodynamic equations for nuclear reactors which are typically used in safety-analysis studies. The studies here reported were performed on 4K PDP 8 and the larger PDP 11/20 computers with Interactive SimuZation Language (ISL).
The parameters of a former LOFT 1 reactor design are used, but the delayed-neutron fractions and decay constants are taken from a paper by Albrecht and Metelmann.2 Simulations are made for six, three, two, and one delayed neutron group for a startup accident. The purpose of the runs is to show the effect of simplifying assumptions on accuracy and on the speed of computer processing. The results show that speed can be increased by a factor of 20 without seriously affecting accuracy. At these speeds, it is possible to simulate the nuclear system five times faster than real time on a PDP 11/20 computer. With extra hardware such as a mul/div unit or a floating- point processor, additional speed is possible.
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