Verification of the sensitivity and uncertainty-based criticality safety validation techniques: ORNL’s SCALE case study

Huang, Dongli; Mertyurek, Ugur; Abdel-Khalik, Hany

doi:10.1016/j.nucengdes.2020.110571

Verification of the sensitivity and uncertainty-based criticality safety validation techniques: ORNL’s SCALE case study

Journal Article · Thu Feb 27 00:00:00 EST 2020 · Nuclear Engineering and Design

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2020.110571· OSTI ID:1617800

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Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

The use of sensitivity and uncertainty-based techniques has been well-developed in the neutronic community for criticality safety applications. Sensitivity techniques calculate the first-order relative variations in keff due to relative cross-section variations by isotope, reaction type, and incident neutron energy. The result is a vector of sensitivity coefficients which is folded with prior cross-section uncertainties to calculate the so-called similarity indices. Similarity indices are integral quantities which serve as useful mathematical measures for assessing the relevance of existing or new experiments to given application conditions, representing design systems for which the models are to be validated. Despite their importance for a wide range of validation activities, the peer-reviewed literature is non-existent on the development of rigorous verification analysis for their calculated values. Thus, this manuscript proposes a simple non-intrusive method to calculate similarity indices, serving as an independent verification tool for their evaluation. The manuscript derives the theoretical basis for the proposed verification analysis. Next, the verification analysis is applied to the ORNL’s SCALE code suite which employs adjoint-based methods to calculate similarity indices. Numerical experiments using a number of well-known benchmark experiments are employed to verify the calculation of the similarity indices.

Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 1617800

Journal Information:: Nuclear Engineering and Design, Journal Name: Nuclear Engineering and Design Journal Issue: C Vol. 361; ISSN 0029-5493

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Verification of the sensitivity and uncertainty-based criticality safety validation techniques: ORNL’s SCALE case study

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