The validity of effective cross section obtained by the conventional equivalence theory is discussed from the viewpoint of reaction rate preservation in a heterogeneous system. It is shown that the reaction rate is not preserved when the escape probability is expressed by a multiterm rational approximation, which is commonly used in light water reactor (LWR) analyses. A new derivation method for obtaining a multigroup effective cross section, which accurately reproduces the result of reference ultrafine group calculation, is proposed. The validity of the proposed method is confirmed through test calculations in various heterogeneous geometries, which represent typical LWR configurations. Because the implementation of the proposed method is very simple, it is useful for existing lattice physics codes that utilize the equivalence theory on the basis of two-term (or multiterm) rational approximation.
