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U.S. Department of Energy
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Validation of KENO V. a: Comparison with critical experiments

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6956501

Section 1 of this report documents the validation of KENO V.a against 258 critical experiments. Experiments considered were primarily high or low enriched uranium systems. The results indicate that the KENO V.a Monte Carlo Criticality Program accurately calculates a broad range of critical experiments. A substantial number of the calculations showed a positive or negative bias in excess of 1 1/2% in k-effective (k/sub eff/). Classes of criticals which show a bias include 3% enriched green blocks, highly enriched uranyl fluoride slab arrays, and highly enriched uranyl nitrate arrays. If these biases are properly taken into account, the KENO V.a code can be used with confidence for the design and criticality safety analysis of uranium-containing systems. Sections 2 of this report documents the results of investigation into the cause of the bias observed in Sect. 1. The results of this study indicate that the bias seen in Sect. 1 is caused by code bias, cross-section bias, reporting bias, and modeling bias. There is evidence that many of the experiments used in this validation and in previous validations are not adequately documented. The uncertainty in the experimental parameters overshadows bias caused by the code and cross sections and prohibits code validation to better than about 1% in k/sub eff/. 48 refs., 19 figs., 19 tabs.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-84OR21400
OSTI ID:
6956501
Report Number(s):
ORNL/CSD/TM-238; ON: DE87004023
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English