The Physics of Nuclear Reactors

Serge Marguet is an expert in reactor physics at Electricité De France (EDF), the French leading utility owning a fleet of 58 nuclear reactors. EDF is one of the major companies in the world nuclear field. He has taken part, for the last 30 years, in the development of the calculation scheme of the French nuclear reactors. At the beginning of the 2000, he headed the EDF research team on severe accidents, subject on which he was appointed as expert by the European Commission, in charge of the evaluation of the 6th European Framework Programme, related to severe accidents. Serge Marguet is also teaching reactor physics at the National Institute of Applied Sciences of Bourges (France) for 15 years, as well Neutronics in the EDF Institute of Technology Transfer.

Introduction.- Basic concepts in nuclear physics.- Neutron interactions with matter.- Interactions of electromagnetic rays and charged particles with matter.- The slowing-down of neutrons.- The resonant absorption.- The Doppler Effect in nuclear fuel.- Neutron thermalization.- The Boltzmann equation.- Numerical methods in neutron transport theory.- The neutron diffusion theory.- Reactivity of a nuclear reactor.- The theory of the homogeneous critical reactor.- The theory of the nuclear reactor reflector.- The theory of the heterogeneous reactor.- Fuel cycle physics.- The nuclear feedbacks.- The kinetics of nuclear reactors.- Computation methods in diffusion theory.- Conclusions.- Appendices.- Reactor physics at Electricité de France.