Preliminary analysis of reactivity reconstruction capability based on inverse kinetics method under different initial reactivity states

Online reactivity monitoring plays an important role in operation and safety analyses of fission reactor systems. The inverse kinetics method, which is based on a point kinetics model, is the most widely used method for reactivity reconstruction of critical water reactors. However, this method is seldom applied to the reactivity reconstruction of subcritical reactors. In this study, an inverse kinetics method was employed for the reactivity reconstruction of a lead-based reactor under different initial reactivity states(ρ_0= 0,-2786,-5486,-8367, and-12,371 pcm). The results showed that the deviation in the reactivity of the lead-based subcritical reactor was greater when ρ_0 became smaller. The reactivity reconstructed using the inverse kinetics method was globally underestimated. At a given reactivity perturbation, the relative and absolute errors increased with the decrease in the initial reactivity. At a given initial reactivity, with the increase in the reactivity perturbation, the absolute error increased, whereas the relative error remained the same.This deviation is due to the variation in the external neutron source, spatial-spectral effects, and sub-diffusive effects, which require further study.