Consideration of the theoretical possibility of regulating the nuclear reactor by changing a fraction of delayed neutrons

A lot of theoretical and experimental studies devoted to the effect of external electromagnetic fields and ionization on the beta-decay probability have been published in the past years. The possibility of using this physical effect as the main reactor-regulation mechanism is investigated in this study. A set of equations allowing the operation of a nuclear reactor to be described when the probability for the beta decay of precursors of delayed neutrons and, hence, the fraction of delayed neutrons are functions of time is written and investigated. It is shown that, if the fraction of the delayed neutrons does not change, the proposed set of equations coincides with the generally known one. As follows from the analysis of the solutions to the new set of equations, the proposed reactor-regulation method does not allow reactor runaway driven by prompt neutrons even theoretically. The application of the proposed control method to a circulating-fuel liquid-type reactor is briefly considered.