Burnup Credit Validation of SCALE-4 Using Light Water Reactor Criticals

Conference · Sun Jun 20 04:00:00 EDT 1993

OSTI ID:7368624

Bowman, S. M. ^[1]; Hermann, O. W. ^[1]; Brady, M. C. ^[2]

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1. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
2. Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

The ANSI/ANS 8.1 criticality safety standard recommends validation and benchmarking of the calculational methods used in evaluating criticality safety limits for away-from-reactor applications. The lack of critical experiments with burned light-water-reactor (LWR) fuel in racks or in casks necessitates the validation of burnup credit methods by comparison to LWR core criticals. These are relevant benchmarks because they test a methodology's ability to predict spent fuel isotopics and to evaluate the reactivity effects of heterogeneities and strong absorbers. Data are available to perform analyses at precise state points. The US Department of Energy Burnup Credit Program has sponsored analysis of selected reactor core critical configurations from commercial pressurized-water-reactors (PWRs) in order to validate an appropriate analysis methodology. The initial methodology used the SCALE-4 code system to analyze a set of reactor critical configurations from Virginia Power's Surry and North Anna reactors. The methodology has since been revised to simplify both the data requirements and the calculational procedure for the criticality analyst. This revised methodology is validated here by comparison to three reactor critical configurations from Tennessee Valley Authority's Sequoyah Unit 2 Cycle 3 and two from Virginia Power's Surry Unit 1 Cycle 2.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP); USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400; AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 7368624
• Report Number(s): CONF-930601--23; ON: DE93015505
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
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Nonbreeding
Light-Water Moderated
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210200 -- Power Reactors
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22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
220100 -- Nuclear Reactor Technology-- Theory & Calculation
42 ENGINEERING
420203* -- Engineering-- Handling Equipment & Procedures
ANSI/ANS 8.1
BENCHMARKS
BURNUP
CRITICALITY
ENERGY SOURCES
ENRICHED URANIUM REACTORS
FUEL ELEMENTS
FUELS
Light-Water-Reactor (LWR)
MATERIALS
NUCLEAR FUELS
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
POWER REACTORS
PWR TYPE REACTORS
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTOR FUELING
REACTOR MATERIALS
REACTORS
SAFETY
SEQUOYAH-2 REACTOR
SPENT FUELS
STANDARDS
SURRY-1 REACTOR
THERMAL REACTORS
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS