Challenge of PWR new core design simulation A focus on uncertainties due to nuclear data and reflector modelling

International audienceThis paper presents a reactor core uncertainty analysis in the framework of the OECD/NEA UAM Benchmark. Three types of uncertainties affecting the predictions of power distribution in the core of a nuclear reactor are discussed the uncertainties of basic nuclear data, the uncertainties resulting from the use of different simulation tools and those due to approximations in reflector modelling. The contribution of nuclear data uncertainty on the power distribution of a UOX and a MOX core is assessed with the XSUSA tool. Overall, the results obtained with different tools in both institutions are in good agreement, showing that the power distribution uncertainty due to the use of different simulation tools is much lower than the one due to nuclear data, which is a large contributor. Lastly, the paper presents preliminary work showing the relevance of reflector modelling on the uncertainty of the power distribution at nominal conditions as well as on an asymmetrical case representative of accidental conditions. © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd

Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of PWR mini-core transients in the presence of nuclear data uncertainty using non-parametric tolerance limits

The impact of nuclear data uncertainties is studied for the reactor power and the reactivity during control rod withdrawal transients with reactivity insertions of 0.5$and 0.97$, respectively, for a PWR mini-core model. Multi-group cross sections, the multiplicities of both prompt and delayed neutrons, and fission spectra are varied by the application of the random sampling-based method XSUSA with covariance data of SCALE 6.1 supplemented by JENDL-4.0. The varied multi-group data are used by TRITON/NEWT to generate varied 2-group cross sections, which are then applied in neutron-kinetic/thermal-hydraulic calculations with DYN3D-ATHLET. A significant impact on both the reactivity uncertainty and the power uncertainty is observed. Since the distributional properties of the output time series vary across the problem time, the distribution-free Wilks tolerance limit is applied as a robust uncertainty measure to complex time series patterns. The most contributing nuclide reactions to the power uncertainty are identified via sensitivity analysis. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Uncertainty in the delayed neutron fraction in fuel assembly depletion calculations

This study presents uncertainty and sensitivity analyses of the delayed neutron fraction of light water reactor and sodium-cooled fast reactor fuel assemblies. For these analyses, the sampling-based XSUSA methodology is used to propagate cross section uncertainties in neutron transport and depletion calculations. Cross section data is varied according to the SCALE 6.1 covariance library. Since this library includes nu-bar uncertainties only for the total values, it has been supplemented by delayed nu-bar uncertainties from the covariance data of the JENDL-4.0 nuclear data library. The neutron transport and depletion calculations are performed with the TRITON/NEWT sequence of the SCALE 6.1 package. The evolution of the delayed neutron fraction uncertainty over burn-up is analysed without and with the consideration of delayed nu-bar uncertainties. Moreover, the main contributors to the result uncertainty are determined. In all cases, the delayed nu-bar uncertainties increase the delayed neutron fraction uncertainty. Depending on the fuel composition, the delayed nu-bar values of uranium and plutonium in fact give the main contributions to the delayed neutron fraction uncertainty for the LWR fuel assemblies. For the SFR case, the uncertainty of the scattering cross section of U-238 is the main contributor