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A high-intensity pulsed neutron source can be constructed according to the principle of a superbooster, i.e., a neutron multiplying system of the neutron-generating target of the proton accelerator with proton energy of about 1 GeV in the subcritical reactivity modulation system. Usually, superboosters are considered to be safe and reliable nuclear facilities. However, as indicated in this paper, a powerful superbooster may prove to be less stable in operation than a pulsed reactor. Therefore, the problems of its safety call for close study.

The current trend in neutron-aided scientific research presupposes the development of new high-intensity pulsed sources. One variant of such an installation could be a pulsed reactor with a fissile-isotope core – 237Np. The present work is devoted to a study of the dynamics of power pulses of a neptunium reactor taking account of fast temperature feedback during pulse buildup. The problem is reduced to a simple model of a single frequency oscillator combined with the equation of single point kinetics of a reactor neglecting delayed neutrons. It is shown that on the basis of such an approximation, owing to feedback on the temperature of a fuel element the estimated energy of accidental power pulses decreases by almost a factor of 10 compared with a calculation neglecting fast feedback.