ukaea / ukaea/PROCESS

:bug:Neutron losses are not calculated anywhere

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@jmorris-uk is already working on this.

Since Jul 16, 2026.

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Description

These two variables are declared but never used or calculated in the tokamak code:

        pnucloss: float = 0.0
    """nuclear heating lost via holes [MW]"""

    pnucvvplus: float = 0.0
    """nuclear heating to vacuum vessel and beyond [MW]"""

In issue #180 James wrote: "I have created a new variable for the power going to the vacuum vessel and beyond called pnucvvplus. Pnucloss is now only attributed to fhole like before."
However in the code, fhole is used only in stellarator and IFE models.

Expected behaviour

A fraction of neutron power escapes the vacuum vessel. This should be estimated and used consistently. It is needed for the reactor power balance (#4233).

Environment

  • Branch: 4233-global-power-imbalance-output

Additional context

Neutrons pass through holes in the blanket, and also by penetrating through the blanket. Obviously there aren't any holes in the vessel.

The PROCESS engineering paper describes a slightly confusing approach:

Although the neutronics calculations give absolute results, we have introduced a factor f to renormalise the power deposition making the assumption that 100% of the neutrons are absorbed.

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