Uncertainties in the Anti-neutrino Production at Nuclear Reactors

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the uncertainties in anti-neutrino production from nuclear reactors, focusing on how measurement and calculation errors affect detection rates and the implications for reactor neutrino experiments.

Contribution

It provides a detailed assessment of the uncertainties in thermal power and fission rate calculations and their correlations across reactors, informing experimental accuracy.

Findings

Uncertainties significantly impact predicted anti-neutrino fluxes.

Reactor-to-reactor correlations influence experimental interpretations.

Quantitative estimates of uncertainty contributions are provided.

Abstract

Anti-neutrino emission rates from nuclear reactors are determined from thermal power measurements and fission rate calculations. The uncertainties in these quantities for commercial power plants and their impact on the calculated interaction rates in electron anti-neutrino detectors is examined. We discuss reactor-to-reactor correlations between the leading uncertainties and their relevance to reactor anti-neutrino experiments.