Modeling Enhancements and Demonstration of Shift Capabilities for PBRs and MSRs

Technical Report · Thu Oct 19 04:00:00 EDT 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/2203030· OSTI ID:2203030

Pandya, Tara ^[1]; Ghaddar, Tarek ^[1]; Bostelmann, Friederike ^[1]; Jessee, Matthew ^[1]; Britt, Philip ^[2]

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1. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
2. TerraPower, LLC, Bellevue, WA (United States)

This technical report documents the modeling enhancements and demonstrations with the Shift Monte Carlo (MC) code targeted at pebble-bed reactors (PBRs) and molten salt reactors (MSRs) under the US Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program in fiscal year (FY) 2023. The work performed included several enhancements, such as improvements for multigroup cross section generation, a new eigenvalue mode considering only prompt fission neutrons, and enhancements to the Titan frontend for Shift to allow for new geometry types and tally functionality. Additionally, new PBR equilibrium core search reference calculations were generated with Shift and compared to Serpent calculations provided by Idaho National Laboratory (INL). These enhancements provide a robust foundation for applying Shift for both reference and two-step neutronics analysis for advanced reactor simulation.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 2203030
• Report Number(s): ORNL/TM--2023/3072
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS