MC21/CTF and VERA-CS Mutiphysics Solutions to VERA Core Physics Benchmark Problems 6 and 7

Conference · Sat Apr 01 04:00:00 EDT 2017

OSTI ID:1408006

Aviles, Brian ^[1]; Kelly, Ann ^[1]; Kelly, Daniel ^[1]; Collins, Benjamin S. ^[2]; Godfrey, Andrew T. ^[2]; Salko, Robert K. ^[2]

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1. Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory
2. ORNL

The continuous energy Monte Carlo neutron transport code, MC21, was coupled to the CTF subchannel thermal-hydraulics code using a combination of CASL tools and in-house Python scripts. An MC21/CTF solution for VERA Core Physics Benchmark Progression Problem 6 demonstrated excellent agreement with MC21/COBRA-IE and VERA solutions. The MC21/CTF solution for VERA Core Physics Benchmark Progression Problem 7, Watts Bar Unit 1 at beginning of cycle (BOC) hot full power (HFP) equilibrium xenon conditions, is the first published coupled Monte Carlo neutronics / subchannel T-H solution for this problem. MC21/CTF predicted a critical boron concentration of 854.5 ppm, yielding a critical eigenvalue of 0.99994 ± 6.8E-6 (95% CI). Excellent agreement with a VERA solution of Problem 7 was also demonstrated for integral and local power and temperature parameters.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1408006
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English