Nuclear Criticality Safety Engineer Training

Module 3 1

Fission Chain Reactions

LESSON OBJECTIVE

This module introduces the concepts of the infinite multiplication factor, the effective
multiplication factor and the components of each.

NEUTRON MULTIPLICATION FACTOR

In a multiplying medium neutrons may be born in fission as high energy neutrons, lose energy by
scattering from nuclides in the medium, become thermal neutrons and be captured. Some of the
neutrons may be captured in fission events and produce more neutrons, which starts the cycle
over again.

The ANSI/ANS Standard 8.1 defines the effective multiplication factor (for now, consider only
the physical definition given in the standard, not the mathematical definition):

effective multiplication factor (k eff). Physically, the ratio of the total number of
neutrons produced during a time interval (excluding neutrons produced by sources
whose strengths are not a function of fission rate) to the total number of neutrons
lost by absorption and leakage during the same interval.

This definition appears to be one that defines something that can be calculated. That is, calculate
the number of neutrons produced, the number lost by leakage and absorption, and take a ratio.
However, there is a statement about a time interval, which might seem curious for a steady state
problem.

Consider a slightly different definition for the multiplication factor, k (without the subscript eff
for now):

number of neutrons in one generation

k=
number of neutrons in preceding generation

1
Developed for the U. S. Department of Energy Nuclear Criticality Safety Program by T.
G. Williamson, Ph.D., Westinghouse Safety Management Solutions, Inc., in conjunction with the
DOE Criticality Safety Support Group.

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A generation is defined in terms of the neutron history: a neutron is born in fission, slows down,
and causes another fission to start the next generation. Here again the concept of time, or
generation, is introduced.

Another definition in terms of neutron balance that might be more amenable to computations is:

k = P( t ) / L(t)
rate of neutron production in a fissionable system
=
rate of neutron loss in a fissionable system

Neutrons are lost from the fissionable system by absorption or leakage.

Now use the production and loss rates to calculate the time rate of change of the neutron
population. Define the neutron lifetime as

l = N (t) / L (t),

where N(t), the total neutron population in the system at time t, is divided by the neutron loss
rate.

The time rate of change of the neutron population is

dN/dt = P(t) - L(t)

= production rate - loss rate.

This can be rewritten as

dN ( k − 1)
= * N(t)
dt l

For the case in which both k and l are time independent, the solution is

  k − 1 
N ( t ) = N 0 exp    t
 l  

The value of k determines the state of the system.

• if k < 1, N(t) decreases exponentially and the system is subcritical

• if k = 1, N(t) is constant, and the system is critical
• if k > 1, N(t) increases exponentially, and the system is supercritical

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The neutron lifetime is typically in the range 10 -3 to 10 -4 seconds in a thermal multiplying system
and 10 -5 to 10 -6 in a fast system. For a value of k = 1.001 and a lifetime of 10 -4 seconds, the
power level of this system would increase by e10 = 22,000 in one second, which would make it
difficult to control.

Fortunately, there is a mitigating factor. A small fraction of the fission neutrons are not prompt,
that is, emitted at the time of the fission event, but are delayed. This fraction, although small
(0.6% for 235U and 0.2% for 239Pu and 233U), is sufficient to allow control of systems for which the
multiplication factor is less than prompt critical. Prompt critical is defined as the condition when
k = 1 + β, where β is the delayed neutron fraction. As long as a system maintains k eff less than
prompt critical, the system can be controlled. Using the delayed neutron fractions given above,
the prompt critical values of k eff become 1.006 for 235U and 1.002 for 239Pu and 233U. As close as
these values are to 1.00, it behooves the criticality specialist to stay well below a value of
k eff = 1.00 in criticality safety analyses.

NEUTRON FATE

Consider the fate of fission neutrons - they are born, they can leak away or they can be absorbed.
In an absorption, the neutron is lost, but it may cause another fission and produce more neutrons.
Define the probabilities for each of these events.

PNL = probability that a neutron will not leak out of system before absorption

PAF = probability that if a neutron is absorbed it will be absorbed in the fissionable

material

Pf = probability that if a neutron is absorbed in fissionable material, it will induce a

fission reaction

First consider a thermal system and calculate the ratio of two interaction rates.

φΣ af Σ af
PAF = = ≡ f
φΣ a Σ a

Where Σ a is the total absorption cross section, Σ af is the absorption cross section of the
fissionable material and f is defined as the thermal utilization. Defining f this way implies that all
of the important absorptions occur at thermal energies. Also implicit in this statement is that the
absorption rate is everywhere proportional to the cross section, i.e., that the flux is uniform and
cancels in the ratio of the interaction rates.

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Similarly, Pf can be defined as the ratio of two interaction rates.

φΣ ff Σ ff
Pf = =
φΣ ar Σ af

where Σ ff is the fission cross section of the fissionable material.

Starting with N1 neutrons in one fission generation, then the number of neutrons in the next
generation, N2, is

N2 = ν Pf PAF PNL N1

= η f PNL N1

where
νΣ ff
η=
Σ af
The multiplication factor becomes

N2
k= = η f PNL
N1

If the system is very large so that the nonleakage probability is unity then

ν Σ ff
k∞ = ηf =
Σa

This quantity, k 4, is called the infinite multiplication factor and is a characteristic of the materials
only.

To this point we have only considered absorption of thermal neutrons. Now include "fast" and
"slowing down" effects. Define the fast fission factor ε to be

total number of fission neutrons from fast and thermal fissions

ε≡
number of fission neutrons from thermal fissions

Define the resonance escape probability, p, as

p = fraction of fission neutrons that slow down from fission to thermal energy
without being absorbed.

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Combining these parameters gives the four-factor formula for an infinite (large) system

k4 = η f p ε

Typical values for these parameters are: ε from 1.00 to 1.02; p from 0.7 to 0.95; f = 0.7 to 0.9;
and η = 2.0 to 2.2.

Now separate the nonleakage probability into fast, PFNL, and thermal, PTNL, components

PNL = PFNL PTNL

to get the six factor formula for smaller systems

k = η f p ε PFNL PTNL

This approach seems very elementary; however, it is a useful way to understand what is going on
in a fissioning system. If each of the six factors can be calculated, which may not be a trivial task,
then it is known whether or not the system is critical. In criticality analysis, each of these terms is
very rarely calculated; however, the criticality specialist should be aware of the processes of
thermal and fast absorption, leakage, and neutron slowing down.

As an example of a quick hand calculation, consider the thermal-energy values for 233U, 235U and
239
Pu. (Reference: Neutron Cross Sections, Vol. 1, Neutron Resonance Parameters and Thermal
Cross Sections, S. F. Mughabghab, Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1984.)

233 235 239

U U Pu
ν 2.493 2.425 2.877

σa 574.7 680.9 1017.3

σf 529.1 582.6 748.1

k4 2.296 2.074 2.115

These values indicate that the maximum multiplication factors possible in a 233U, 235U or 239Pu
system are 2.296, 2.074 and 2.115, respectively. One qualifier to this is that this calculation is
done for the thermal neutron values only. The quantities in the table change with neutron energy
and there are neutron spectrum effects which result in different values for real systems. However,
the spectrum effects do not drastically change these values.

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MEAN FREE PATH

So far this module has introduced the concepts of neutron multiplication and neutron lifetime.
Another concept to consider is the neutron mean free path. The question is, how far will a
neutron travel, on the average, from the location where it is born to the point at which it is
captured? The mean free path is defined as the reciprocal of the macroscopic cross section.
However, that definition presents some difficulties. As the neutron slows from fast energies to
thermal energies, the energy dependent cross section varies. Even at thermal energies, where a
single energy-independent cross section may be appropriate, several mean free paths could be
calculated: mean free path for absorption, mean free path for scattering, etc. A mean free path for
scattering only gives an indication of the distance the neutron travels before a scattering event, but
the neutron may have several consecutive scattering events and travel further than one mean free
path.

To give some idea of the distances involved consider a few cases and approximate values for
mean free paths.

System Type Neutron Energy Neutron Event Mean Free Path (cm)
Uranium Metal 2 MeV Interaction ~3
Water Thermal Interaction ~ 0.66
Water Thermal Absorption ~ 45
Water, 30 g/L 239Pu Thermal Absorption ~ 13
Water, 300 g/L 239Pu Thermal Absorption ~ 1.3

In general, for many mixtures of interest to the criticality specialist the mean free path for a
neutron is on the order of a few centimeters.

Related to the neutron mean free path is the size of the fissionable volume. It is apparent that if
the material volume is large most of the neutrons will interact in the active material and the
neutron leakage fraction will be small. Conversely, a small system may have a large leakage
fraction. The mean chord length, defined as 4V/S, (V/S is the volume divided by the surface
area) is a useful parameter to estimate whether a system is large or small. If the mean chord
length is large compared to the neutron mean free path, it might be expected that the leakage
fraction is relatively small. The mean chord lengths for some geometries are listed in the table
below.

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 Geometry Volume Surface Mean Chord
Area Length
Long Cylinder (negligible end areas)
radius r πr2h 2πrh 2r
arbitrary height h
Large Slab
thickness t At 2A 2t
arbitrary face area A
Sphere
(4/3)πr3 4πr2 (4/3) r
radius r
Cylinder with L/D = 1
2πr3 6πr2 (4/3) r
radius r
Cube
x3 6x2 (2/3) x
length of side x

As a general rule-of-thumb if the mean chord length is a few neutron mean free path lengths, the
system is "leaky" and if the mean chord length is many neutron mean free path lengths the leakage
is small.

SUMMARY

In this module, the basic concepts and parameters of fission chain reactions were introduced,
including the definitions of infinite multiplication factor, effective multiplication factor, subcritical,
critical, supercritical, neutron production and loss, resonance escape probability, four factor and
six factor formulae, mean free path and mean chord length.

The effect of some of these parameters on the multiplication of the system were discussed and the
use of mean free path and mean chord length to to get an idea of the "leakiness" of a system was
illustrated.

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PROBLEMS

1. Compute and plot the ratio νΣ f /Σ a for a mixture of 235U and 238U metal as a function of the
uranium enrichment (from 0.7 % to 100 %) for thermal energy cross sections with these values.
Assume the density of uranium is 18.9 g/cm 3.

235 238
U U
ν 2.425
(n per fission)
σ a (barns) 680.9 2.68
σ f (barns) 582.6
Atomic Weight 235.0439 238.0508

2. A mixture of 235U and water is contained in a sphere with radius 14.20 cm. The atom densities
and thermal neutron cross sections are listed in this table.

at/b-cm σf σa σs
235
U 1.2811E-04 582.6 680.9 14.3
H 6.6559E-02 0.333 20.49
O 3.3279E-02 0.00054 3.76

Estimate the mean free path for a thermal neutron in this mixture and compare it with the mean
chord length in the sphere.

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3. Calculate the ratio of the hydrogen atom density to the fissile atom density, NH/NF, for a
critical (k4 = 1.0) infinite homogenous mixture of the fissile material and water. Do calculations
for 235U, 233U, and 239Pu separately. For 235U repeat the calculation with 5 atom-% 238U in the
uranium and with 93 atom-% 238U. Repeat the plutonium calculation with 5 atom-% 240Pu in the
plutonium mixture. Use the following thermal neutron values.

ν σa σf
235
U 2.425 680.9 582.6
239
Pu 2.877 1017.3 748.1
233
U 2.493 574.7 529.1
H 0.333
O 0.00054
238
U 2.68
240
Pu 289.5

4. In this module an equation was developed for the time rate of change for the neutron
population. This equation is

  k − 1 
N ( t ) = N 0 exp    t
 l  

The equation does not include effects of delayed neutrons, which are important to the control of a
chain reaction. An approximation in which the delayed neutrons are assumed to be emitted in a
single group with an average decay constant gives the following result for the time rate of change
of the neutron population

 β   λρ   ρ   β − ρ 
N(t) = N 0    exp t−   exp −  t
 β − ρ   β − ρ  β − ρ  l  

where β is the delayed neutron fraction, ρ, is the reactivity (ρ = (k-1)/k), λ is the decay constant
for the single delayed neutron group, and l is the mean lifetime of a neutron from birth in fission
to capture or escape. Typical values for a 235U thermal system are β = 0.0075, λ = 0.08 sec-1, and
l = 0.001 sec. For a system which starts from critical the reactivity ρ . k-1. Calculate the time
rate of change of the neutron population for values of ρ between 0.0 and β.

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PROBLEM SOLUTIONS

1. The macroscopic cross section is defined as the product of the atom density and the
microscopic cross section (see NCSET Module 1). Given the enrichment of the uranium in wt-%,
the atom densities of the two uranium isotopes are:

N235 = (N a / A235) * ρ * (wt-% / 100)

N238 = (N a / A238) * ρ * (1-(wt-% / 100))

.
Using these equations with N a = 0.60221 plus the data given in the problem, the following table
can be generated. Note that the total macroscopic absorption cross section is the sum of the
values for the two isotopes.

Enrichment N235 N238 Σf Σa ν*Σ f/Σ a

0.7 3.390e-04 4.748e-02 0.197 0.358 1.338
1 4.842e-04 4.733e-02 0.282 0.457 1.498
2 9.685e-04 4.686e-02 0.564 0.785 1.743
5 2.421e-03 4.542e-02 1.411 1.770 1.932
10 4.842e-03 4.303e-02 2.821 3.413 2.005
20 9.685e-03 3.825e-02 5.642 6.697 2.043
30 1.453e-02 3.347e-02 8.464 9.981 2.056
40 1.937e-02 2.869e-02 11.285 13.266 2.063
50 2.421e-02 2.391e-02 14.106 16.550 2.067
60 2.905e-02 1.912e-02 16.927 19.834 2.070
70 3.390e-02 1.434e-02 19.748 23.119 2.071
80 3.874e-02 9.562e-03 22.569 26.403 2.073
90 4.358e-02 4.781e-03 25.391 29.688 2.074
100 4.842e-02 0.000e+00 28.212 32.972 2.075

The following figure shows a graphical representation of these results.

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 2.2

2.0
Nu*Sigma-f/Sigma-a

1.8

1.6

1.4

1.2

1.0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Enrichment

This points to the importance of 238U but is not a realistic calculation because it does not include
the resonance absorption in 238U which is significant in this mixture.

2. From Page 6, the mean free path is the reciprocal of the total macroscopic cross section. For a
mixture of materials and interactions, the total cross section is the sum of the individual
components (see NCSET Module 1). This gives

Σ TOT = N 235 * ( σ f + σ a + σ s) U + N H * ( σ a + σ s) H + N O * ( σ a + σ s) O

Inserting the numbers from the problem,

Σ TOT = 0.1637 + 1.3860 + 0.1251 = 1.6748 cm -1

The inverse of this is the mean free path, 0.5971 cm.

For a sphere the mean chord length (see Page 7) is given by (4r/3). With a radius 14.2 cm the
mean chord length is 18.93 cm. For this case the mean chord length is much larger than the mean
free path, indicating that the leakage is probably not significant for this sphere.

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3. From Page 4, the infinite multiplication factor is

νΣ f ν NFσ f
k∞ = =
Σa N F σ a + N H σ aH + N O σ aO + N D σ aD
F

where the subscripts on the atom densities are F for fissile atoms, H for hydrogen, O for oxygen,
and D for 238U or 240Pu. The subscripts on σ are a for absorption and f for fission, and the
superscripts are F for fissile atoms, H for hydrogen, O for oxygen and D for 238U or 240Pu. Since
the system is critical, k 4 = 1.0 and NO = 0.5 NH (i.e., H2O); with a little algebraic manipulation the
equation can be rearranged to

N 
ν σ f − σ aF − σ aD  D 
NH  NF 
=
NF σ aH + 0.5 σ Oa

Since the atom-fraction of diluent atoms (238U or 240Pu) is just ND/N and the atom-fraction of
fissile atoms is NF/N, the ratio of ND/NF is just the ratio of the given atom-fractions. For example,
for the 5 at-% 238U case, ND/NF = 0.05/0.95.

The results are tabulated below. Note that the inclusion of 238U in the uranium mixture or 240Pu in
the plutonium mixture does not significantly change the result.

Material NH / NF
235
U 2196
239
Pu 3406
233
U 2233
235 238
U + 5 at-% U 2196
235
U + 93 at-% 238U 2089
239 240
Pu + 5 at-% Pu 3360

4. The change in the neutron population as a function of time is calculated by simply substituting
the values of the variables into the equations and letting t vary from a fraction of a second up to a
few seconds. The following table shows the calculated neutron population as a function of time
for rho equal to 0.0025 and equal to 0.007, both with and without the delayed neutrons. For the
first case and with the approximation of a single delayed neutron group, the neutron population
doubles in about five seconds. Without the delayed neutrons the ρ = 0.0025 calculation indicates
that the population would increase by a factor of over 200,000 in the same time interval. Note
that as rho approaches β in the ρ = 0.007 columns, the increase in neutrons is incredibly fast,
reaching 4000 times the initial value in five seconds with the delayed neutrons and increasing by
more than 1015 with no delayed neutrons. In a more usual transient analysis about six groups of

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delayed neutrons would be used to better approximate reality. Each of the six groups would have
different values of β and λ.

rho = 0.0025 rho = 0.007

t N(t) with N(t) without N(t) with N(t) without
Delayed n Delayed n Delayed n Delayed n
0.0001 1.0003 1.0003 1.0024 1.0007
0.001 1.0026 1.0025 1.0238 1.0070
0.005 1.0126 1.0126 1.1192 1.0356
0.01 1.0250 1.0253 1.2388 1.0725
0.02 1.0488 1.0513 1.4791 1.1503
0.03 1.0714 1.0779 1.7210 1.2337
0.04 1.0930 1.1052 1.9645 1.3231
0.05 1.1136 1.1331 2.2096 1.4191
0.06 1.1332 1.1618 2.4564 1.5220
0.07 1.1519 1.1912 2.7049 1.6323
0.08 1.1696 1.2214 2.9550 1.7507
0.09 1.1866 1.2523 3.2069 1.8776
0.1 1.2027 1.2840 3.4605 2.0138
0.2 1.3281 1.6487 6.0983 4.0552
0.3 1.4065 2.1170 8.9402 8.1662
0.4 1.4565 2.7183 12.0155 16.4447
0.5 1.4893 3.4903 15.3569 33.1155
0.6 1.5115 4.4817 19.0008 66.6863
0.7 1.5275 5.7546 22.9876 134.2898
0.8 1.5396 7.3891 27.3623 270.4264
0.9 1.5494 9.4877 32.1749 544.5719
1 1.5578 12.1825 37.4814 1096.633
1.5 1.5925 42.5211 73.8702 3.63e+04
2 1.6249 148.4132 135.7497 1.20e+06
5 1.8321 2.68e+05 4.06e+03 1.59e+15
10 2.2377 7.20e+10 1.10e+06 2.52e+30

The following figure graphically presents these results. Note the logarithmic scale on the plot.

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 10000 1.E+07

1.E+06

N(t) without Delayed Neutrons

1000
N(t) with Delayed Neutrons

1.E+05

1.E+04
100
1.E+03

With Delayed Neutrons, rho = 0.0025 1.E+02

10 With Delayed Neutrons, rho = 0.007
Without Delayed Neutrons, rho = 0.0025
Without Delayed Neutrons, rho = 0.007 1.E+01

1 1.E+00
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5

Time (s)

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