Steps towards verification and validation of the Fetch code for Level 2 analysis, design, and optimization of aqueous homogeneous reactors

Conference · Sun Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2012

OSTI ID:22105810

Nygaard, E. T. ^[1]; Pain, C. C.; Eaton, M. D.; Goddard, A. J. H.; Gorman, G.; Tollit, B.; Buchan, A. G.; Cooling, C. M. ^[2]; Angelo, P. L. ^[3]

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1. Babcock and Wilcox Technical Services Group, 800 Main Street, Lynchburg, VA 24504 (United States)
2. Applied Modelling and Computation Group, Dept. of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ (United Kingdom)
3. Y-12 National Security Complex, Oak Ridge, TN 37831 (United States)

Babcock and Wilcox Technical Services Group (B and W) has identified aqueous homogeneous reactors (AHRs) as a technology well suited to produce the medical isotope molybdenum 99 (Mo-99). AHRs have never been specifically designed or built for this specialized purpose. However, AHRs have a proven history of being safe research reactors. In fact, in 1958, AHRs had 'a longer history of operation than any other type of research reactor using enriched fuel' and had 'experimentally demonstrated to be among the safest of all various type of research reactor now in use [1].' While AHRs have been modeled effectively using simplified 'Level 1' tools, the complex interactions between fluids, neutronics, and solid structures are important (but not necessarily safety significant). These interactions require a 'Level 2' modeling tool. Imperial College London (ICL) has developed such a tool: Finite Element Transient Criticality (FETCH). FETCH couples the radiation transport code EVENT with the computational fluid dynamics code (Fluidity), the result is a code capable of modeling sub-critical, critical, and super-critical solutions in both two-and three-dimensions. Using FETCH, ICL researchers and B and W engineers have studied many fissioning solution systems include the Tokaimura criticality accident, the Y12 accident, SILENE, TRACY, and SUPO. These modeling efforts will ultimately be incorporated into FETCH'S extensive automated verification and validation (V and V) test suite expanding FETCH'S area of applicability to include all relevant physics associated with AHRs. These efforts parallel B and W's engineering effort to design and optimize an AHR to produce Mo99. (authors)

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society, Inc., 555 N. Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, Illinois 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22105810
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
AQUEOUS HOMOGENEOUS REACTORS
COMPUTER CODES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CRITICALITY
FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
FLUID MECHANICS
ISOTOPE ENRICHED MATERIALS
MOLYBDENUM 99
OPTIMIZATION
RADIATION ACCIDENTS
RADIATION TRANSPORT
RESEARCH REACTORS
VALIDATION
VERIFICATION