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Engineering Physics 4P03/6P03
Nuclear Power Plant Systems and Operation
(This course is also given as a UNENE course - UN 0801)
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Announcements
- Note: this page may contain out-of-date information. The instructor's word takes precedence over this page.
- This course was last offered in the 2008 Jan-Apr session. Contents below refer to that session.
- Students receive
a CD-ROM will the full course contents. Try a sample.
Includes audio and interactivity. Very nice.
The reference text is available for download. See the Course notes section below. - There will be NO regular lectures. A startup lecture held in early
January (Jan 8) introduces you to the CD based material.
- Introductory 3.5 minute demo of the course material
(exe 2.2Mb).
- Introductory 2 minute demo to the simulator (exe 1.5Mb). Please excuse the poor image quality that resulted from having to
squeeze the simulator screens down to fit within your web browser.
The assignments submissions are due weekly every Monday at 4:30 in the drop box outside the EP office. See the schedule below. Pick up your marked assignments at the Engineering Physics office (JHE A315).- Check to ensure that I have you on my email list (xls 20 kb).
- Some people are experiencing problems with the latest version of the simulator. Download the previous version (3.3Mb zip) [password protected]. It is essentially the same but suffers from a loss of stripchart history when you switch screens.
Course description and administrative matters:
- Self-paced interactive CD-ROM. Please refer to the official departmental
course
outline.
-
Instructor: Dr. Ben Rouben, roubenb@mcmaster.ca and roubenb@alum.mit.edu. Office hours Tuesdays 9:30-10:30 am in JHE 327A, or by e-mail.
- The TA for the course is Andrew Morreale,
morreaac@mcmaster.ca, JHE 327, ext. 26128. Office hours: Nominally Thursday afternoons or by e-mail appointment in the TA's office(JHE 327).
- This course was taught in the past by Dr. Wm. J. Garland, garlandw@mcmaster.ca, NRB 117, ext. 24925.
- Weekly time slots of Tuesdays 8:30-9:20, Thursdays 8:30-9:20, and Fridays 8:30-9:20 (location T13/107) have been assigned to this course but lectures will be held on Tuesdays only.
Extra Assignment for Graduate Students
This is the extra assignment for graduate students (students in EP 6P03). This is due in Dr. Rouben's hands by Monday 2008 March 17. This assignment is worth 20 marks (out of a total of 120) for the final course mark.
Midterm Exam
Tuesday 2008 Feb. 26, 8:30 -10:20 am, A.N. Burns Science Building (ABB) Room 270. This will be a closed-book exam, but 6 single-sided 8.5"x11" crib sheets are permitted. The midterm is worth 20% of final mark. Don't miss it!
Final Exam
The final exam for 4P03/6P03 will be held Saturday 2008 April 12, at 14:00. This is a closed-book exam, but students are permitted 6 single-sided 8.5"x11" crib sheets and any calculator.
Course Schedule
- The course will follow the schedule as listed below as set out in the notes subject to confirmation of the lecturer. Assignments are due on the Monday afternoon at 4:30 following the week in which the work is to be covered. Assignments can be submitted by hand, by e-mail or fax.
Problem Clarifications:
Some Lecture Material (in order of presentation):
- Backgrounder on Fission and CANDU Reactor (PPT, 2.39 Mb)
- Station Cutaway Enlarged (WORD, 242 kb)
- Calibration of Simulator Time Scale (WORD, 25 kb)
- Modes of Plant Operation (WORD, 112 kb)
- CANDU Control Programs and Process Systems (PPT, 376 kb)
- CANDU & PWR (PPT, 2.30 Mb)
- CANDU Reactivity Devices (PPT, 2.05 Mb)
- CANDU Detector Systems (PPT, 1.19 Mb)
- Xenon Effects in Reactor Operation (PPT, 0.5 Mb)
- Point-Kinetics Program EXKIN (PPT, 67 kb), Exkin_br.xls (XLS, 179 kb), Exkin.exe (Executable, 255 kb) [both files must be placed in directory c:/exkin.dir]
- More Kinetics with Delayed Neutrons (PPT, 444 kb)
Course notes:
The course material is copyrighted so it cannot be posted freely here on the web or be distributed without permission. Go to the bookstore and purchase the course pack. The cost is about $30 for the main notes + CD, and about $15 each for the resource book (containing assignments and other support material) and a reference text. The resource book and the reference text are on the CD so you could get away without either but you would need to find and print off the material from the CD. Cost-wise, since printing is not cheap, you would be advised to buy the resource pack at least. Ask for the CD at the checkout. Due to the over-subscription to the course, you may have to wait 48 hours to pick up the material after you pay for it.
Note: The reference text is available for download, compliments of the author, Dr. George Bereznai
George.Bereznai@uoit.ca. This text contains all the course theory and notes in a succinct format. Cover (pdf 26kb) Text Body (pdf 2.4Mb).
Try a sample.
Includes interactivity but the audio has been disabled since the audio files are
time-consuming to down load. Very nice. The course material consists of the following:
- A CD-ROM containing an interactive version of the course Lecture
Notes, a Reference Text, a CANDU desktop simulator and electronic versions
of the Learning Resource manual
- printed copy of the course Lecture Notes
- printed copy of the Reference Text
- printed copy of the Learning Resources manual containing:
- 1 Study Guide
- 2 Simulator User Manual
- 3 Simulator Exercises
- 4 Review Questions
- 5 Problem Sets
- 6 Tutorial for Using the CD-ROM
- CANDU 6 poster with some technical data (pdf 500kb) with permission from AECL, with thanks to Daryoosh Vashaee for scanning and Eric Lemoine for chasing down permission.
- Some energy flow data (link to the CANTEACH web site) that is useful for the Week 1 assignment. Look at CANDU Fundamentals Training Course (2003) Module 10 presentation, for instance.
- Point kinetics program and working file. Note: These 2 files need to be downloaded into directory c:\exkin.dir.
- Errata (doc 32kb) as of 2007.12.31.
Tutorials and Class Recordings:
Occasional tutorials are held as requested. Supporting text and audio / screen capture recordings of the actual tutorials are given below. BBFlashback was used to create a self standing executable. Just down load and run. Use the View command on the toolbar to adjust the movie size. File sizes are large but that is the best we can do at the moment. Check the schedule below for when the tutorials were / will be held.
2007 Session
2006 Session
- 2006.01.03
- 2006.01.17
- Ian Hill discussed PREPRO, a preprocessor for handling neutron and photon cross section data from the IAEA Nuclear Data Centre. Nice!
- Discussion (exe 10.5Mb) on international organizations and data availability, quick demo of MNRSIM (McMaster Nuclear Reactor Simulator), a discussion on the central role of steam generators, and a question on the supercritical fluid reactor.
- 2006.01.24
- 2006.01.31
- 2006.02.07
- 2006.02.14
- 2006.02.28
- 2006.03.21
- Discussion of midterm. Course evaluation forms.
- 2006.03.28
- We'll continue our discussion of the Heat Transport System.
2005 Session
- 2005.01.17
- 2005.01.24
- 2005.01.31
- 2005.02.07
- 2005.02.14
- 2005.03.21
- Supplementary reading on reactor physics concepts
Interesting and Informative Links
- Teaching matters - helpful general
information on teaching and learning for the student and the educator
- Suggestions welcome