Building neutron cross-section dependencies for few-group reactor calculations using stepwise regression

Approximation of few-group neutron cross-sections by functions of burnup and thermal-hydraulics parameters of a fuel cell is considered. The cross-section is written as a sum of two terms: the base cross-section, which depends only on burnup and is computed under the nominal reactor core conditions, and the deviation, which depends on burnup and thermal-hydraulics variables of the cell. A one-dimensional dependence of the base cross-section is interpolated by a cubic spline. Multi-dimensional dependencies of the deviation are approximated by a polynomial.