Advances in Sensitivity Analysis Capabilities with SCALE 6.0 and 6.1

Conference · Sun Oct 17 00:00:00 EDT 2010

OSTI ID:992110

Rearden, Bradley T. ^[1]; Petrie, Jr., Lester M. ^[1]; Williams, Mark L. ^[1]

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1. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

The sensitivity and uncertainty analysis sequences of SCALE compute the sensitivity of k_eff to each constituent multigroup cross section using perturbation theory based on forward and adjoint transport computations with several available codes. Versions 6.0 and 6.1 of SCALE, released in 2009 and 2010, respectively, include important additions to the TSUNAMI-3D sequence, which computes forward and adjoint solutions in multigroup with the KENO Monte Carlo codes. Previously, sensitivity calculations were performed with the simple and efficient geometry capabilities of KENO V.a, but now calculations can also be performed with the generalized geometry code KENO-VI. TSUNAMI-3D requires spatial refinement of the angular flux moment solutions for the forward and adjoint calculations. These refinements are most efficiently achieved with the use of a mesh accumulator. For SCALE 6.0, a more flexible mesh accumulator capability has been added to the KENO codes, enabling varying granularity of the spatial refinement to optimize the calculation for different regions of the system model. The new mesh capabilities allow the efficient calculation of larger models than were previously possible. Additional improvements in the TSUNAMI calculations were realized in the computation of implicit effects of resonance self-shielding on the final sensitivity coefficients. Multigroup resonance self-shielded cross sections are accurately computed with SCALE's robust deterministic continuous-energy treatment for the resolved and thermal energy range and with Bondarenko shielding factors elsewhere, including the unresolved resonance range. However, the sensitivities of the self-shielded cross sections to the parameters input to the calculation are quantified using only full-range Bondarenko factors.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 992110
• Resource Relation: Conference: Joint International Conference on Supercomputing in Nuclear Applications and Monte Carlo 2010 (SNA + MC2010), Tokyo (Japan), 17-21 Oct 2010
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
S CODES
REACTIVITY COEFFICIENTS
DATA COVARIANCES
CROSS SECTIONS
PERTURBATION THEORY
SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
SHIELDING
MONTE CARLO METHOD
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
SCALE
SCALE 6.0
KENO
Mesh Accumulator
TSUNAMI Calculations
Calculations