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Title: Criticality calculations of the Very High Temperature Reactor Critical Assembly benchmark with Serpent and SCALE/KENO-VI

Abstract

Within the framework of the IAEA Coordinated Research Project on HTGR Uncertainty Analysis in Modeling, criticality calculations of the Very High Temperature Critical Assembly experiment were performed as the validation reference to the prismatic MHTGR-350 lattice calculations. Criticality measurements performed at several temperature points at this Japanese graphite-moderated facility were recently included in the International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments and represent one of the few data sets available for the validation of HTGR lattice physics. Here, this work compares VHTRC criticality simulations utilizing the Monte Carlo codes Serpent and SCALE/KENO-VI. Reasonable agreement was found between Serpent and KENO-VI, but only the use of the latest ENDF cross section library release, namely the ENDF/B-VII.1 library, led to an improved match with the measured data. Furthermore, the fourth beta release of SCALE 6.2/KENO-VI showed significant improvements from the current SCALE 6.1.2 version, compared to the experimental values and Serpent.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [1];  [1]
  1. Gesellschaft für Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit gGmbH (GRS), Garching (Germany)
  2. Texas A & M University, College Station, TX (United States)
  3. Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP); USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE); German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy
OSTI Identifier:
1259313
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1358753
Report Number(s):
INL/JOU-15-34867
Journal ID: ISSN 0306-4549; PII: S0306454915300177
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC07-05ID14517
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Annals of Nuclear Energy
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 90; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0306-4549
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS; 73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS; 97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING; Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP); HTGR; VHTRC; serpent; SCALE/KENO-VI

Citation Formats

Bostelmann, Friederike, Hammer, Hans R., Ortensi, Javier, Strydom, Gerhard, Velkov, Kiril, and Zwermann, Winfried. Criticality calculations of the Very High Temperature Reactor Critical Assembly benchmark with Serpent and SCALE/KENO-VI. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2015.12.008.
Bostelmann, Friederike, Hammer, Hans R., Ortensi, Javier, Strydom, Gerhard, Velkov, Kiril, & Zwermann, Winfried. Criticality calculations of the Very High Temperature Reactor Critical Assembly benchmark with Serpent and SCALE/KENO-VI. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2015.12.008
Bostelmann, Friederike, Hammer, Hans R., Ortensi, Javier, Strydom, Gerhard, Velkov, Kiril, and Zwermann, Winfried. 2015. "Criticality calculations of the Very High Temperature Reactor Critical Assembly benchmark with Serpent and SCALE/KENO-VI". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2015.12.008. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1259313.
@article{osti_1259313,
title = {Criticality calculations of the Very High Temperature Reactor Critical Assembly benchmark with Serpent and SCALE/KENO-VI},
author = {Bostelmann, Friederike and Hammer, Hans R. and Ortensi, Javier and Strydom, Gerhard and Velkov, Kiril and Zwermann, Winfried},
abstractNote = {Within the framework of the IAEA Coordinated Research Project on HTGR Uncertainty Analysis in Modeling, criticality calculations of the Very High Temperature Critical Assembly experiment were performed as the validation reference to the prismatic MHTGR-350 lattice calculations. Criticality measurements performed at several temperature points at this Japanese graphite-moderated facility were recently included in the International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments and represent one of the few data sets available for the validation of HTGR lattice physics. Here, this work compares VHTRC criticality simulations utilizing the Monte Carlo codes Serpent and SCALE/KENO-VI. Reasonable agreement was found between Serpent and KENO-VI, but only the use of the latest ENDF cross section library release, namely the ENDF/B-VII.1 library, led to an improved match with the measured data. Furthermore, the fourth beta release of SCALE 6.2/KENO-VI showed significant improvements from the current SCALE 6.1.2 version, compared to the experimental values and Serpent.},
doi = {10.1016/j.anucene.2015.12.008},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1259313}, journal = {Annals of Nuclear Energy},
issn = {0306-4549},
number = C,
volume = 90,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Dec 30 00:00:00 EST 2015},
month = {Wed Dec 30 00:00:00 EST 2015}
}

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Cited by: 6 works
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Works referenced in this record:

Impact of Revised Thermal Neutron Capture Cross Section of Carbon Stored in JENDL-4.0 on HTTR Criticality Calculation
journal, July 2011


The Serpent Monte Carlo code: Status, development and applications in 2013
journal, August 2015


A Model for Neutron Scattering Off Heavy Isotopes That Accounts for Thermal Agitation Effects
journal, March 1991