Effects of Spatial Variations in Packing Fraction of Reactor Physics Parameters in Pebble-Bed Reactors

Conference · Wed Jun 11 00:00:00 EDT 2003

OSTI ID:15004427

Terry, W K; Ougouag, A M; Rahnema, F; Mckinley, M S

The well-known spatial variation of packing fraction near the outer boundary of a pebble-bed reactor core is cited. The ramifications of this variation are explored with the MCNP computer code. It is found that the variation has negligible effects on the global reactor physics parameters extracted from the MCNP calculations for use in analysis by diffusion-theory codes, but for local reaction rates the effects of the variation are naturally important. Included is some preliminary work in using first-order perturbation theory for estimating the effect of the spatial variation of packing fraction on the core eigenvalue and the fission density distribution.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 15004427
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JC-154607; TRN: US1005170
• Resource Relation: Conference: Nuclear Mathematical and Computational Sciences: A Century in Review, A Century Anew, Gatlinburg, TN, Apr 06 - Apr 11, 2003
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71
COMPUTER CODES
DISTRIBUTION
EIGENVALUES
FISSION
PEBBLE BED REACTORS
PERTURBATION THEORY
REACTION KINETICS
REACTOR PHYSICS