Improvements on the calculation of the epithermal disadvantage factor for thermal nuclear reactors

The disadvantage factor takes into account the neutron flux variation through the fuel cell. In the fuel the flux is depressed in relation to its level in the moderator region. In order to avoid detailed calculations for each different set of cell dimensions, which turns out necessary the development of problem-dependent neutron cross section libraries, a disadvantage factor based on a two-region equivalence theory was proposed for the EPRI-CELL code. However, it uses a rational approximation to the neutron escape probability to describe the neutron transport between cell regions. Such approximation allows the use of the equivalence principals but introduces a non negligible error which results in an underestimation of the cell neutron fluxes. A new proposed treatment, that will be presented in this work, remarkably improves the numerical calculation and reduces the error of the above mentioned method. (author). 4 refs., 2 figs