Application of Generalized Variational Principles to Controlled Thermonuclear Reactor Neutronics Analysis

The application of the generalized variational principles to controlled thermonuclear reactor (CTR) neutronics studies has been demonstrated using the neutronics analysis for a laser-driven molybdenum-structured CTR blanket. The variational functionals could be derived and proved identical mathematically with the well-known perturbation theory. The variational and perturbational functionals are alternatively useful in a fixed adjoint source and a fixed system perturbation problem. The neutronics calculational results using these techniques show the accuracy, range of applicability, and extremum property of their applications.