Nuclear Reactor Theory

Course Number: 
NE 250
Course Units: 
4
Course Instructor: 
Staff

Catalog Description

  • Fission characteristics; neutron chain reactions, neutron transport and diffusion theory; reactor kinetics; multigroup methods, fast and thermal spectrum calculations, inhomogeneous reactor design, effects of poisons and fuel depletion. Offered odd-numbered years.

Course Prerequisites

  • NE 101,
  • NE 150,
  • E 117 recommended

Textbook(s) and/or other required material

  • J. J. Duderstadt & L. J. Hamilton, "Nuclear Reactor Analysis," Wiley (1976)
  • About 20% of homework assignments use UNIX workstations or personal computers and FORTRAN or C computer languages. Typically an elementary finite-difference solution of a diffusion equation, and a solution of an ODE system or radioactive decay schemes and/or a point reactor kinetics problem. Students will use several modern reactor analysis computer programs (GTRAN2, CPM-2, MCNP).

Class schedule

  • Four hours of lecture per week