Verification of SMART Neutronics Design Methodology by the MCNAP Monte Carlo Code

Conference · Sat Nov 11 23:00:00 EST 2000

OSTI ID:786836

Chung, Jong Sung ^[1]; Shim, Kyung Jin ^[1]; Kim, Chang Hyo ^[1]; Lee, Chungchan ^[1]; Zee, Sung Quun ^[1]

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1. Seoul National University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Taejon (Korea, Republic of)

SMART is a small advanced integral pressurized water reactor (PWR) of 330 MW(thermal) designed for both electricity generation and seawater desalinization. The CASMO-3/MASTER nuclear analysis system, a design-basis of Korean PWR plants, has been employed for the SMART core nuclear design and analysis because the fuel assembly (FA) characteristics and reactor operating conditions in temperature and pressure are similar to those of PWR plants. However, the SMART FAs are highly poisoned with more than 20 Al₂O₃-B₄C plus additional Gd₂₃/UO₂ BPRs each FA. The reactor is operated with control rods inserted. Therefore, the flux and power distribution may become more distorted than those of commercial PWR plants. In addition, SMART should produce power from room temperature to hot-power operating condition because it employs nuclear heating from room temperature. This demands reliable predictions of core criticality, shutdown margin, control rod worth, power distributions, and reactivity coefficients at both room temperature and hot operating condition, yet no such data are available to verify the CASMO-3/MASTER (hereafter MASTER) code system. In the absence of experimental verification data for the SMART neutronics design, the Monte Carlo depletion analysis program MCNAP is adopted as near-term alternatives for qualifying MASTER neutronics design calculations. The MCNAP is a personal computer-based continuous energy Monte Carlo neutronics analysis program written in C++ language. We established its qualification by presenting its prediction accuracy on measurements of Venus critical facilities and core neutronics analysis of a PWR plant in operation, and depletion characteristics of integral burnable absorber FAs of the current PWR. Here, we present a comparison of MASTER and MCNAP neutronics design calculations for SMART and establish the qualification of the MASTER system.

• Research Organization: Seoul National University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Taejon (Korea, Republic of)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
• OSTI ID: 786836
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
C CODES
C Codes
CONTROL ELEMENTS
CONTROL ROD WORTHS
Computerized Simulation
Control Rod Worths
Criticality
DESALINATION REACTORS
DESIGN
M CODES
M Codes
MONTE CARLO METHOD
Monte Carlo Method
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
POWER DISTRIBUTION
PWR TYPE REACTORS
Power Distribution
Pwr Type Reactors
REACTIVITY COEFFICIENTS
REACTOR CORES
Reactivity Coefficients
Reactor Shutdown
VERIFICATION
Verification