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Title: Molten salt reactor core simulation with PROTEUS

Journal Article · · Annals of Nuclear Energy (Oxford)
 [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

The Nuclear Energy Advance Modeling and Simulation Program (NEAMS) of the US Department of Energy (DOE) aims to develop advanced simulation tools to aid the development of advanced nuclear technologies. The high-fidelity PROTEUS code was developed in the NEAMS program for reactor physics analysis. This paper tests the applicability of the PROTEUS code to simulate a Molten Salt Reactor (MSR). The OpenMC code based on the Monte Carlo Method was employed to generate the cross sections and to provide stochastic solutions for verification. The PROTEUS code was successfully employed to simulate the steady-state performance of an MSR represented by the ThorCon core design. The 2D lattice, 2D core, and 3D full core calculations performed by PROTEUS show good agreement with that predicted by OpenMC. Furthermore, for the nodal option within PROTEUS, the precursor drift model was also tested, and this effect resulted in a reduction of the k-eff by 300 pcm.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE); USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1632330
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1701985
Journal Information:
Annals of Nuclear Energy (Oxford), Vol. 140; ISSN 0306-4549
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (2)

ENDF/B-VII.0: Next Generation Evaluated Nuclear Data Library for Nuclear Science and Technology journal December 2006
OpenMC: A state-of-the-art Monte Carlo code for research and development journal August 2015

Figures / Tables (22)