skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Evaluation of the Pool Critical Assembly Benchmark with Explicitly-Modeled Geometry using MCNP6

Abstract

Despite being one of the most widely used benchmarks for qualifying light water reactor (LWR) radiation transport methods and data, no benchmark calculation of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Pool Critical Assembly (PCA) pressure vessel wall benchmark facility (PVWBF) using MCNP6 with explicitly modeled core geometry exists. As such, this paper provides results for such an analysis. First, a criticality calculation is used to construct the fixed source term. Next, ADVANTG-generated variance reduction parameters are used within the final MCNP6 fixed source calculations. These calculations provide unadjusted dosimetry results using three sets of dosimetry reaction cross sections of varying ages (those packaged with MCNP6, from the IRDF-2002 multi-group library, and from the ACE-formatted IRDFF v1.05 library). These results are then compared to two different sets of measured reaction rates. The comparison agrees in an overall sense within 2% and on a specific reaction- and dosimetry location-basis within 5%. Except for the neptunium dosimetry, the individual foil raw calculation-to-experiment comparisons usually agree within 10% but is typically greater than unity. Finally, in the course of developing these calculations, geometry that has previously not been completely specified is provided herein for the convenience of future analysts.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [1]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1374316
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-16-23200
Journal ID: ISSN 0029-5450
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-06NA25396
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nuclear Technology
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 197; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 0029-5450
Publisher:
American Nuclear Society (ANS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS; Pool Critical Assembly (PCA); MCNP6; Pressure Vessel Benchmark

Citation Formats

Kulesza, Joel A., and Martz, Roger Lee. Evaluation of the Pool Critical Assembly Benchmark with Explicitly-Modeled Geometry using MCNP6. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1080/00295450.2016.1273711.
Kulesza, Joel A., & Martz, Roger Lee. Evaluation of the Pool Critical Assembly Benchmark with Explicitly-Modeled Geometry using MCNP6. United States. https://doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2016.1273711
Kulesza, Joel A., and Martz, Roger Lee. 2017. "Evaluation of the Pool Critical Assembly Benchmark with Explicitly-Modeled Geometry using MCNP6". United States. https://doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2016.1273711. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1374316.
@article{osti_1374316,
title = {Evaluation of the Pool Critical Assembly Benchmark with Explicitly-Modeled Geometry using MCNP6},
author = {Kulesza, Joel A. and Martz, Roger Lee},
abstractNote = {Despite being one of the most widely used benchmarks for qualifying light water reactor (LWR) radiation transport methods and data, no benchmark calculation of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Pool Critical Assembly (PCA) pressure vessel wall benchmark facility (PVWBF) using MCNP6 with explicitly modeled core geometry exists. As such, this paper provides results for such an analysis. First, a criticality calculation is used to construct the fixed source term. Next, ADVANTG-generated variance reduction parameters are used within the final MCNP6 fixed source calculations. These calculations provide unadjusted dosimetry results using three sets of dosimetry reaction cross sections of varying ages (those packaged with MCNP6, from the IRDF-2002 multi-group library, and from the ACE-formatted IRDFF v1.05 library). These results are then compared to two different sets of measured reaction rates. The comparison agrees in an overall sense within 2% and on a specific reaction- and dosimetry location-basis within 5%. Except for the neptunium dosimetry, the individual foil raw calculation-to-experiment comparisons usually agree within 10% but is typically greater than unity. Finally, in the course of developing these calculations, geometry that has previously not been completely specified is provided herein for the convenience of future analysts.},
doi = {10.1080/00295450.2016.1273711},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1374316}, journal = {Nuclear Technology},
issn = {0029-5450},
number = 3,
volume = 197,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Wed Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 2 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share: