Effects of plutonium recycle, in-core shuffling, fuel mechanical design and power peaking on fuel cycle costs. Senior capstone design course. Major design experience that emphasizes putting student's engineering knowledge into practice. Design topic is one of current interest in nuclear engineering. Design methodology, creativity, feasibility, reliability, and economic analyses of the overall design required.
Students work in teams, and present oral and written design reports.
Introduction to neutron physics. Elements of neutron slowing-down theory. The Boltzman transport equation is developed together with approximations such as PN, SN, and Fermi Age. Nuclear systems are theoretically treated utilizing the diffusion approximation, the Fermi Age method and the P-3 method. Elementary temperature and time dependence.