Validation of k_eff Calculations for Extended BWR Burnup Credit

Technical Report · Sat Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1492185· OSTI ID:1492185

Marshall, William J. ^[1]; Clarity, Justin B. ^[1]; Bowman, Stephen M. ^[1]

---

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

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and consensus standards recommend validation of the numerical methods used in criticality safety analyses. This validation requires the comparison of computational results with measurements of physical systems which are neutronically similar to those used in the safety analysis being performed. To this end, this document examines the methods available to generate sensitivity data to help identify systems similar to spent boiling- water reactor (BWR) fuel in a flooded spent nuclear fuel transportation or storage cask. A large number of critical benchmark experiments are surveyed using sensitivity/uncertainty (S/U) techniques to assess their applicability to BWR burnup credit (BUC) beyond the burnup of peak reactivity. Multiple burnups of BWR assemblies are considered herein, as well as the actinide-only (AO) and actinide-and-major-fission-product (AFP) isotope sets. Sample validations are completed for representative application models to demonstrate that appropriate validation is possible and to indicate the bias and bias uncertainty values expected for related applications.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1492185
• Report Number(s): ORNL/TM-2018/797
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES