Provides a concise review of the physical aspects of safety of nuclear fission reactors. It covers the developments of roughly the last decade. The introductory chapter contains an analysis of the changes in safety philosophy that are characteristic of the last decade and that have given rise to an increased importance of physical aspects because of the emphasis on passive or natural safety. The second chapter focuses on the basics of reactor safety, identifying the main risk sources and the main principles for a safe design. The third chapter concerns a systematic treatment of the physical processes that are fundamental for the properties of fission chain reacting processes and the control of those processes. Because of the rather specialized nature of the field of reactor physics, each paragraph contains a very concise description of the theory of the phenomenon under consideration, before presenting a review of the developments. Chapter 4 contains a short review of the thermal aspects of reactor safety, restricted to those aspects that are characteristic of the nuclear reactor field, because thermal hydraulics of fission reactors is not principally different from that of other physical systems. In chapter 5 the consequences of the physics treated in the preceding chapters for the dynamics and safety of actual reactors are reviewed. The systematics of the treatment is mainly based on a division of reactors into three categories according to the type of coolant, which to a large extent determines the safety properties of the reactors. The last chapter contains a physical analysis of the Chernobyl accident that occurred in 1986. The reason for an attempt to give a review of this accident, as complete as possible within the space limits set by the editors, is twofold: the Chernobyl accident is the most severe accident in history and physical properties of the reactor played a decisive role, thereby serving as an illustration of the material of the preceding chapters.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0034-4885/55/11/003/pdf

Physics of nuclear reactor safety

Anharmonic effects on the resonance line shape of 238U in UO2—III

Chemical binding effects on resonant scattering of neutrons

Anharmonic effects on the resonance line shape of 238U in UO2—III: Cubic, quartic and thermal effects of the phonon shifts and widths on the resonance line shape

Holger St John

Papers

Chemical binding effects on resonance line shape and neutron capture rates