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:
-
- 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}
}
Web of Science