Validation of Scale 6.2 criticality calculations using KENO V.A and KENO-VI - 14603
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory, One Bethel Valley Road, PO Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN 37831 (United States)
- Department of Nuclear Engineering University of Tennessee - Knoxville 315 Pasqua Engineering Bldg., Knoxville, TN 37996 (United States)
SCALE 6.2 provides enhancements for criticality calculations relative to SCALE 6.1, especially with updated nuclear data libraries, resonance self-shielding options for multigroup (MG) calculations, and problem-dependent temperature treatments for continuous-energy (CE) calculations. Benchmark experiments from the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project that are available in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Verified, Archived, Library of Inputs and Data (VALID) were applied in this validation effort to examine the impact of the SCALE 6.2 enhancements. Over 300 cases are drawn from the VALID library for testing KENO V.a, and a more limited set of approximately 50 configurations is used for validation of KENO-VI. A total of 401 unique critical experiments are used in this validation effort. In some cases, the KENO V.a models were converted to KENO-VI models so that the performance of both codes could be assessed for the same systems. Validation results for the SCALE 6.2 ENDF/B-VII.1 nuclear data libraries are presented, including MG neutron data in 56- and 252-group structures as well as CE data. The performance of all three multipurpose neutron libraries in calculating k{sub eff} is examined with critical experiment models covering a wide range of fuels, moderators, reflectors, absorbers, and neutron spectra. The SCALE 6.2 ENDF/B-VII.1 coupled neutron-photon library, primarily developed for shielding applications with 200 neutron groups and 47 gamma groups, provides additional energy resolution for fast systems relative to the MG neutron libraries which were developed to produce low biases for thermal neutron systems. The applicability of this library to criticality calculations for fast neutron spectrum systems is not investigated here but will be addressed in the final SCALE 6.2 validation report. The results of these calculations demonstrate that SCALE 6.2 generally provides lower biases than SCALE 6.1 and that the two versions of KENO provide equivalent results on the same suite of problems. SCALE 6.2 also includes an updated neutron cross-section covariance library based on the ENDF/B-VII.1 covariance data. The effect of these updated covariances on the uncertainty in k{sub eff} due to cross section uncertainties is also presented for some cases. A more thorough investigation of the updated covariance data is presented in a companion paper. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 23100961
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ICNC 2015: 2015 International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety, Charlotte, NC (United States), 13-17 Sep 2015; Other Information: Country of input: France; 15 refs.; available on CD Rom from American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (US)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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