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Breaking ground on a new approach to construction
The drive to Kairos Power’s reactor demonstration site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., is not only scenic—it’s historic. Nearly 85 years ago, roughly 30,000 construction workers transformed orchards and farmland into a key Manhattan Project site. Depending on your route, you may pass by one of the three gatehouses that were once military checkpoints controlling access to Atomic Energy Commission production facilities.
A. Z. Akcasu, C. M. Bost, Jr.
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 47 | Number 1 | January 1972 | Pages 104-115
Technical paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE72-A28423
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The concept of multiple-input zero power describing functions is introduced in terms of the nonlinear response of a zero power reactor to a large periodic reactivity input, and the dual-input zero power describing function is calculated explicitly. The effect of amplitude and phase of the second input on the describing function is investigated numerically. The zero power describing function is used to construct the describing function at high power using closed loop feedback circuit theory. This approach allows nonlinear effects and feedback effects to be discussed separately. The nonlinear stability of a two-temperature reactor is investigated using the high power describing function and Nyquist stability criterion with particular attention to the existence and stability of limit cycles. In addition, the discrepancies between various definitions of the describing function are discussed and clarified.