LWR-PROTEUS Verification of Reaction Rate Distributions in Modern 10 x 10 Boiling Water Reactor Fuel

Journal Article · Thu Nov 15 04:00:00 EST 2001 · Nuclear Science and Engineering

OSTI ID:20804747

Jatuff, F ^[1]; Grimm, P ^[1]; Joneja, O ^[1]; Murphy, M ^[1]; Luethi, A ^[1]; Seiler, R ^[1]; Brogli, R ^[1]; Jacot-Guillarmod, R ^[2]; Williams, T ^[2]; Helmersson, S ^[3]; Chawla, R ^[1]

---

1. Paul Scherrer Institute (Switzerland)
2. Elektrizitats-Gesellschaft Laufenburg AG (Switzerland)
3. Westinghouse Atom AB (Sweden)

HELIOS, CASMO-4, and MCNP4B calculations of reaction rate distributions in a modern, fresh 10 x 10 boiling water reactor fuel element have been validated using the experimental results of the LWR-PROTEUS Phase I project corresponding to full-density water moderation conditions (core 1B). The reaction rate distributions measured with a special gamma-scanning machine employing twin germanium detectors consisted of total fission F{sub tot} and {sup 238}U-capture C{sub 8}. The average statistical errors for the gamma scans were better than 0.5% for F{sub tot} and 0.9% for C{sub 8}. The rod-by-rod measurements were performed on 60 different fuel rods selected from the central part of a test zone consisting of actual, fresh SVEA-96+ fuel elements, thus gaining in realism by departing from conventional fuel rod mockups. In the case of F{sub tot}, the root-mean-square (rms) of the rod-by-rod distribution of differences between calculational and experimental (C-E) values has been found to be 1.1% for HELIOS and for CASMO-4, and 1.3% for MCNP4B. For C{sub 8}, the rms values of the (C-E) distributions are 1.0, 1.3, and 1.4% as obtained with HELIOS, CASMO-4, and MCNP4B, respectively. The effects of using different data libraries (ENDF/B-V, ENDF/B-VI, and JEF-2.2) with MCNP4B were also studied and have been found to be small.

• OSTI ID: 20804747
• Journal Information: Nuclear Science and Engineering, Journal Name: Nuclear Science and Engineering Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 139; ISSN NSENAO; ISSN 0029-5639
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
BWR TYPE REACTORS
CAPTURE
DENSITY
DISTRIBUTION
ERRORS
FISSION
FUEL RODS
GE SEMICONDUCTOR DETECTORS
NUCLEAR DATA COLLECTIONS
NUCLEAR FUELS
NUCLEAR REACTION KINETICS
URANIUM 238
WATER