Neutron point kinetics model with precursors’ shape function update for molten salt reactor

•Point kinetics model for fluid fuel is improved to better reproduce the spatial model.•Homogeneous perturbations require a quasi-static method only for the precursors.•Proper update frequency greatly lowers errors and maintains computational efficiency. The circulation of liquid fuel is a feature of innovative nuclear reactors, such as Molten-Salt Reactors, and requires a specific neutronics model to take it into account. In this paper we propose a point kinetics model, for a hypothetical one-dimensional reactor, that is based upon and improves one that already exists in the literature. The model is therefore solved numerically and compared to spatial kinetics, which is considered to be the exact solution. The approximations that were done, which best portray the phenomena associated to the problem, are discussed to explain the improvements obtained with the proposed model.