Formulation and calculation of resonance overlap effects

Resonance absorption calculations are particularly important in a study of a reactor breeding fuel. For a breeding reactor new problems arise in resonance calculations as resonances of different nuclide species compete for neutrons. The reaction rate of one species is lowered by the presence of another species as neighbouring resonances may no longer be considered to be isolated from each other. The purpose of the thesis is to study the effect of a resonance of one absorber overlapping a resonance of another absorber. The study of resonance overlap involves an extension of well developed resonance calculational methods. Two approaches are possible (i) a (large) computer is used to solve the slowing down equation or (ii) an approximate analytic technique is pursued. Under (i) a study of a few selected problems is feasible. However, computer time becomes excessive in routine resonance calculations. Under (ii) accuracy of the approximation is important. Methods (i) and (ii) thus complement each other with method (ii) being the routine computational tool.