This work was supported by Rolls Royce Ltd and the authors thank the Company for giving them permission to publish the paper. The authors would also like to thank Dr Chris Cooling for some stimulating discussions. Dr M.D. Eaton would like to thank EPSRC for their support through the following grants: ‘‘Adaptive Hierarchical Radiation Transport Methods to Meet Future Challenges in Reactor Physics” (EPSRC Grant No.: EP/J002011/1) and ‘‘Nuclear Reactor Kinetics Modelling and Simulation Tools for Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Start-up Dynamics and Nuclear Criticality Safety Assessment of Nuclear Fuel Processing Facilities” (EPSRC Grant No.: EP/K503733/1). Finally, MMRW would like to record his indebtedness to Professor Imre Pazsit for always being there to answer his somewhat arcane questions on stochastic processes.

In accordance with EPSRC funding requirements this folder contains all raw data relevant to the named paper: A Theory of Low Source Start-up Based on the Pál-Bell Equations