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Full-Text Articles in Nuclear Engineering
Stochastic Methods For Uncertainty Quantification In Radiation Transport, Erin D. Fichtl
Stochastic Methods For Uncertainty Quantification In Radiation Transport, Erin D. Fichtl
Nuclear Engineering ETDs
The use of stochastic spectral expansions, specifically generalized polynomial chaos (gPC) and Karhunen-Loeve (KL) expansions, is investigated for uncertainty quantification in radiation transport. The gPC represents second-order random processes in terms of an expansion of orthogonal polynomials of random variables. The KL expansion is a Fourier-type expansion that represents a second-order random process with known covariance function in terms of a set of uncorrelated random variables and the eigenmodes of the covariance function. The flux and, in multiplying materials, the k-eigenvalue, which are the problem unknowns, are always expanded in a gPC expansion since their covariance functions are also unknown. …
Time Dependent Non-Extinction Probability For Fast Burst Reactors, Michael Gregson
Time Dependent Non-Extinction Probability For Fast Burst Reactors, Michael Gregson
Nuclear Engineering ETDs
Sandia National Laboratories has successfully operated fast burst reactors over the past four decades. Fast burst reactors refer to a type of reactor that is able to achieve intense neutron pulses in very short periods of time using fissile material. Typically these systems are comprised of enriched metallic uranium fuel. During operation of a fast burst reactor, a phenomena known as a pre-initiation has been known to take place. A pre-initiation occurs when the neutron population exceeds some fiducial prior to achieving the final reactivity state in a pulse operation. Reactivity is determined from the physical configuration of the reactor …