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U.S. Department of Energy
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On SCALE Validation for PBR Analysis

Conference ·
OSTI ID:980709

Studies were performed to assess the capabilities of the SCALE code system to provide accurate cross sections for analyses of pebble bed reactor configurations. The analyzed configurations are representative of fuel in the HTR-10 reactor in the first critical core and at full power operation conditions. Relevant parameters-multiplication constant, spectral indices, few-group cross sections-are calculated with SCALE for the considered configurations. The results are compared to results obtained with corresponding consistent MCNP models. The code-to-code comparison shows good agreement at both room and operating temperatures, indicating a good performance of SCALE for analysis of doubly heterogeneous fuel configurations. The development of advanced methods and computational tools for the analysis of pebble bed reactor (PBR) configurations has been a research area of renewed interest for the international community during recent decades. The PBR, which is a High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (HTGR) system, represents one of the potential candidates for future deployment throughout the world of reactor systems that would meet the increased requirements of efficiency, safety, and proliferation resistance and would support other applications such as hydrogen production or nuclear waste recycling. In the U.S, the pebble bed design is one of the two designs under consideration by the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Program.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
980709
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English