Advances In Nuclear Science And Technology, Volume 23

Advances in Nuclear Science and Technology VOLUME 23 Advances in Nuclear Science and Technology Series Editors Jeffery Lewins Cambridge University, Cambridge, England Martin Becker Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology Portland, Oregon Editorial Board R. W. Albrecht Ernest J. Henley John D. McKean K. Oshima A. Sesonske H. B. Smets C. P. L. Zaleski A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring delivery of each new volume immediately upon publication. Volumes are billed only upon actual shipment. For further information please contact the publisher. Advances in Nuclear Science and Technology VOLUME 23 Edited by Jeffery Lewins Cambridge University Cambridge, England and Martin Becker Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology Portland, Oregon KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS NEW YORK, BOSTON, DORDRECHT, LONDON, MOSCOW eBook ISBN: Print ISBN: 0-306-47810-2 0-306-45184-0 ©2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow Print ©1996 Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers New York All rights reserved No part of this eBook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without written consent from the Publisher Created in the United States of America Visit Kluwer Online at: and Kluwer's eBookstore at: http://kluweronline.com http://ebooks.kluweronline.com PREFAC E The editors have pleasure in presenting this volume of our review series. We have specialised in three areas: perturbation Monte Carlo, non-linear kinetics and the transfer of radioactive fluids in rocks. These contributions are linked, however, in the demands for optimising complex systems that are a feature of the scale of nuclear power production. Kuniharu Kishida’s account of Japanese thinking in the application of modern non-linear theory to reactor kinetics and control comes at a time when the community of control scholars is seeking how to apply the new ideas that have led to the prominence of chaos theory to our field. Problems of maintenance in power reactors are as severe as ever and must be solved for credibility to characterise any new program. As much as 30% of unanticipated down-time, for example, is due to the failure of motor operated valves. We need a theory to provide for preventive maintenance. This in turn depends heavily on on-line monitoring to anticipate failure as well as expert systems to schedule preventive treatment. Noise theory with its promise of on-line interpretation of information from inchoate breakdown is the key. It is all too likely that the need to deal with major departures makes a non-linear theory of noise essential. We can be grateful that Professor Kishida has provided us with such a consistent account. The power of computers descending to the workstation and to the PC is now such as to make elaborate calculations of realistic systems available routinely to every engineer. One PC can be said to equal all the calculating power available to the Manhattan Project and the early power reactor designers. In such modelling, stochastic simulation, or the Monte Carlo methods of nuclear history, plays a dominant role if fully dimensioned systems are to be treated. But the engineer must do more than model; the professional needs to use these models not just to describe a system but to optimise it. Such a challenge calls for the repeated calculations of variations on a theme, with perturbation theory leading to optimisation methods a desiderata that imposes its burden on Monte Carlo theory. v vi