Developments in sensitivity theory

Abstract

A review of recent developments in sensitivity theory is presented with an emphasis on (a) extensions to new areas such as thermal hydraulics, reactor depletion, multi-constraint and extrema problems, and (b) recent mathematical refinements to and extensions of the basic theory. The diverse new areas of application are discussed from a unified theoretical viewpoint based on nonlinear functional analysis. Several new applications of sensitivity theory are presented for problems in constrained reactor physics calculations, irradiation experiment analysis, reactor burnup calculations, and transient thermal-hydraulic analysis. Future directions of the research are suggested