MCNPX 2.7.0 Extensions
Year: 2011
Type: report
Abstract: simulations of the core and shielding of sodium-cooled, fast reactors, for neutron data validation and comparison with experimental results. At the BFS-2 facility, the BFS-62-3A critical benchmark experiment was set-up as a mock-up of the BN-600 reactor, with hybrid MOX fuel and stainless steel reflectors. A UO{sub 2} blanket and a large non-homogeneous stainless-steel reflector surround the core. The lattice is hexagonal of pitch 5.1 cm and metallic dowels are used to keep in central position cylindrical rods made of different types of material (fissile, fertile, blanket, plenum, shielding and absorber). A typical subassembly is formed in piling up various pellets of about 1 cm in height and 4.6 cm in diameter, conferring large heterogeneity in the axial direction. The full-core model development was a complex task due to the large number of subassemblies and the axial subassembly heterogeneity. In ERANOS-2.2, it was necessary to homogenize axially per region the pellets used to form the subassembly. The self-shielded macroscopic cross-sections were calculated using the cell code ECCO in association with JEFF-3.1 and ENDF/B-VI.8 data libraries. The core calculations were performed with broad cross-sections data in 33 neutron energy groups with the solver AVNM in the diffusion approximation, mostly. In MCNPX-2.7.0, a step-by-step approach was used, starting with a model in which the fissile rods were simulated on a homogeneous level, to finally integrate the actual heterogeneous description of the subassemblies. The code-to-code cell analysis performed between ECCO, SERPENT and MCNPX with different modern nuclear data library revealed that the results for the infinite multiplication factor between Monte Carlo and deterministic analysis are in good agreement ({Delta}p < 100 pcm). The differences between the results were observed to be larger for the neutron data libraries, with reactivity differences up to 350 pcm. (authors)
DOI: 10.2172/1058045
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear Energy and Engineering
Field: Energy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2261375854