Preparation of nuclear libraries with deterministic and stochastic methods for LWR reflectors

Conference · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2013

OSTI ID:22212928

Canepa, S.; Hursin, M.; Ferroukhi, H.; Pautz, A. ^[1]

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1. Paul Scherrer Institut PSI, 5232, Villigen PSI (Switzerland)

The explicit reflector methodology is used in the system of codes CASMO-5 / SIMULATE-3 to include the reflector around the active core into the computational region and avoid adopting any ad-hoc or experimental albedo coefficients as boundary conditions. However, to complete the core calculation, a set of cross sections and discontinuity factors is needed for the reflector nodes and the accuracy of these nuclear parameters influences the final results, in particular along the peripheral regions of the core. In this paper the explicit reflector methodology of CASMO-5 is adopted to evaluate the few-group cross sections and discontinuity factors of the different reflector cases, based on the design of Generation II and III LWR reactors. In addition, in the perspective of using Monte-Carlo codes as a complementary option for lattice calculations of reflector configurations, the stochastic SERPENT code is also included as part of this benchmark. With the latter, the impact of applying 2-D reflector models with homogenized materials instead of explicit representation of the real geometrical structures is moreover evaluated and shown to be limited. (authors)

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22212928
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
ACCURACY
ALBEDO
BENCHMARKS
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
CONFIGURATION
CROSS SECTIONS
DESIGN
MATERIALS
MONTE CARLO METHOD
STOCHASTIC PROCESSES