Calculation of the neutron source distribution in the VENUS PWR Mockup Experiment

Conference · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1984

OSTI ID:6521568

Williams, M L; Morakinyo, P; Kam, F B.K.; Leenders, L; Minsart, G; Fabry, A

The VENUS PWR Mockup Experiment is an important component of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's program goal of benchmarking reactor pressure vessel (RPV) fluence calculations in order to determine the accuracy to which RPV fluence can be computed. Of particular concern in this experiment is the accuracy of the source calculation near the core-baffle interface, which is the important region for contributing to RPV fluence. Results indicate that the calculated neutron source distribution within the VENUS core agrees with the experimental measured values with an average error of less than 3%, except at the baffle corner, where the error is about 6%. Better agreement with the measured fission distribution was obtained with a detailed space-dependent cross-section weighting procedure for thermal cross sections near the core-baffle interface region. The maximum error introduced into the predicted RPV fluence due to source errors should be on the order of 5%.

• Research Organization: Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge (USA); Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA); Centre d'Etude de l'Energie Nucleaire, Mol (Belgium)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 6521568
• Report Number(s): CONF-840902-9; ON: DE85001249
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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