Estimation of the fuel temperature reactivity coefficient of the UMass-Lowell research reactor based on empirical and theoretical point reactor kinetics models

• The measured reactivity is estimated with an inverse point reactor kinetics method. • The fuel temperature reactivity coefficient is estimated from a linear relation of the reactivities. • The estimated coefficient is validated with experimental data using reactor point kinetics. Modeling nuclear reactors for simulating transients can be very challenging for a lot of reasons, e.g. space–time representation, heterogeneity, etc. Reactor-specific...