Paper: Optimum control of neutron flux during nuclear station load following

  • Authors:

  • Dale B. Cherchas;Samuel S. Ng

  • Affiliations:

  • Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada;Research Assistant, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Toronto/ presently Engineering Trainee, Ontario Hydro, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

  • Venue:
  • Automatica (Journal of IFAC)
  • Year:
  • 1978

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Abstract

Pontryagin's Maximum Principle is utilized to determine the optimum control of nuclear reactor power during station load following. The optimal control equations are solved by means of a gradient method, time weighted steepest descent, combined with the clipping off technique for constrained control variables. The gradient method iterates directly on the control function. The two point boundary value problem is addressed by using both forward and backward time integration. A performance index which measures reactor operating cost, including the effect of reduced fuel burnup due to Xenon poisoning, is extremized. Results for a range of reactor material costs are presented for a CANDU reactor.