31 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
OECD/NEA Burnup Credit Calculational Criticality Benchmark Phase I-B Results
Burnup credit is an ongoing technical concern for many countries that operate commercial nuclear power reactors. In a multinational cooperative effort to resolve burnup credit issues, a Burnup Credit Working Group has been formed under the auspices of the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This working group has established a set of well-defined calculational benchmarks designed to study significant aspects of burnup credit computational methods. These benchmarks are intended to provide a means for the intercomparison of computer codes, methods, and data applied in spent fuel analysis. The benchmarks have been divided into multiple phases, each phase focusing on a particular feature of burnup credit analysis. This report summarizes the results and findings of the Phase I-B benchmark, which was proposed to provide a comparison of the ability of different code systems and data libraries to perform depletion analysis for the prediction of spent fuel isotopic concentrations. Results included here represent 21 different sets of calculations submitted by 16 different organizations worldwide, and are based on a limited set of nuclides determined to have the most important effect on the neutron multiplication factor of light-water-reactor spent fuel. A comparison of all sets of results demonstrates that most methods are in agreement to within 10% in the ability to estimate the spent fuel concentrations of most actinides. All methods are within 11% agreement about the average for all fission products studied. Furthermore, most deviations are less than 10%, and many are less than 5%. The exceptions are {sup 149}Sm, {sup 151}Sm, and {sup 155}Gd
Recommended from our members
Scale-4 Analysis of Pressurized Water Reactor Critical Configurations: Volume 4-Three Mile Island Unit 1 Cycle 5
The requirements of ANSI/ANS-8.1 specify that calculational methods for away-from-reactor criticality safety analyses be validated against experimental measurements. If credit is to be taken for the reduced reactivity of burned or spent fuel relative to its original ''fresh'' composition, it is necessary to benchmark computational methods used in determining such reactivity worth against spent fuel reactivity measurements. This report summarizes a portion of the ongoing effort to benchmark away-from-reactor criticality analysis methods using relevant and well-documented critical configurations from commercial pressurized water reactors. The analysis methodology utilized for all calculations in this report is based on the modules and data associated with the SCALE-4 code system. Isotopic densities for spent fuel assemblies in the core were calculated using the SCALE-4 SAS2H analytical sequence. The sources of data and the procedures for deriving SAS2H input parameters are described in detail. The SNIKR code family was used to extract the necessary isotopic densities from SAS2H results and to provide the data in the format required for SCALE criticality analysis modules. The CSASN analytical sequence in SCALE-4 was used to perform resonance processing of cross sections. The KENO V.a module of SCALE-4 was used to calculate the effective multiplication factor (k{sub eff}) for the critical configuration. The SCALE-4 27-group burnup library containing ENDF/B-IV (actinides) and ENDF/B-V (fission products) data was used for all calculations. This volume of the report documents a reactor critical calculation for GPU Nuclear Corporation's Three Mile Island Unit 1 (TMI-1) during hot, zero-power startup testing for the beginning of cycle 5. This unit and cycle were selected because of their relevance in spent fuel benchmark applications: (1) cycle 5 startup occurred after an especially long downtime of 6.6 years; and (2) the core consisted primarily (75%) of burned fuel, with all fresh fuel loaded on the core outer periphery. A k{sub eff} value of 0.9978 {+-} 0.0004 was obtained using two million neutron histories in the KENO V.a model. This result is close to the known critical k{sub eff} of 1.0 for the actual core and is consistent with other mixed-oxide criticality benchmarks. Thus this method is shown to be valid for spent fuel applications in burnup credit analyses
Recommended from our members
Scale-4 Analysis of Pressurized Water Reactor Critical Configurations: Volume 1-Summary
The requirements of ANSI/ANS 8.1 specify that calculational methods for away-from-reactor criticality safety analyses be validated against experimental measurements. If credit is to be taken for the reduced reactivity of burned or spent fuel relative to its original ''fresh'' composition, it is necessary to benchmark computational methods used in determining such reactivity worth against spent fuel reactivity measurements. This report summarizes a portion of the ongoing effort to benchmark away-from-reactor criticality analysis methods using critical configurations from commercial pressurized- water reactors (PWR). The analysis methodology utilized for all calculations in this report is based on the modules and data associated with the SCALE-4 code system. Isotopic densities for spent fuel assemblies in the core were calculated using the SAS2H analytical sequence in SCALE-4. The sources of data and the procedures for deriving SAS2H input parameters are described in detail. The SNIKR code sequence was used to extract the necessary isotopic densities from SAS2H results and to provide the data in the format required for SCALE-4 criticality analysis modules. The CSASN analytical sequence in SCALE-4 was used to perform resonance processing of cross sections. The KENO V.a module of SCALE-4 was used to calculate the effective multiplication factor (k{sub eff}) for the critical configuration. The SCALE-4 27-group burnup library containing ENDF/B-IV (actinides) and ENDF/B-V (fission products) data was used for analysis of each critical configuration. Each of the five volumes comprising this report provides an overview of the methodology applied. Subsequent volumes also describe in detail the approach taken in performing criticality calculations for these PWR configurations: Volume 2 describes criticality calculations for the Tennessee Valley Authority's Sequoyah Unit 2 reactor for Cycle 3; Volume 3 documents the analysis of Virginia Power's Surry Unit 1 reactor for the Cycle 2 core; Volume 4 documents the calculations performed based on GPU Nuclear Corporation's Three Mile Island Unit 1 Cycle 5 core; and, lastly, Volume 5 describes the analysis of Virginia Power's North Anna Unit 1 Cycle 5 core. Each of the reactor-specific volumes provides the details of calculations performed to determine the effective multiplication factor for each reactor core for one or more critical configurations using the SCALE-4 system; these results are summarized in this volume. Differences between the core designs and their possible impact on the criticality calculations are also discussed. Finally, results are presented for additional analyses performed to verify that solutions were sufficiently converged. All calculations show the ability to predict a k{sub eff} value very close to 1.0 for various conditions and cooling times. Thus, the methodology applied is shown to be a valid approach for calculating the value of k{sub eff} for systems with spent PWR fuel
Recommended from our members
Sensitivity and Parametric Evaluations of Significant Aspects of Burnup Credit for PWR Spent Fuel Packages
Recommended from our members
Investigation of Burnup Credit Issues in BWR Fuel
Calculations for long-term-disposal criticality safety of spent nuclear fuel requires the application of burnup credit because of the large mass of fissile material that will be present in the repository. Burnup credit calculations are based on depletion calculations that provide a conservative estimate of spent fuel contents, followed by criticality calculations to assess the value of keff for a spent fuel cask or a fuel configuration under a variety of probabilistically derived events. In order to ensure that the depletion calculation is conservative, it is necessary to both qualify and quantify assumptions that can be made in depletion models used to characterize spent fuel. Most effort in the United States this decade has focused on burnup issues related to pressurized-water reactors. However, requirements for the permanent disposal of fuel from boiling-water reactors has necessitated development of methods for prediction of spent fuel contents for such fuels. Concomitant with such analyses, validation is also necessary. This paper provides a summary of initial efforts at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to better understand and validate spent fuel analyses for boiling-water-reactor fuel
Recommended from our members
An extension of the validation of SCALE (SAS2H) isotopic predictions for PWR spent fuel
Isotopic characterization of spent fuel via depletion and decay calculations is necessary for determination of source terms. Unlike fresh fuel assumptions typically used in criticality safety analysis of spent fuel configurations, burnup credit applications also rely on depletion and decay calculations to predict spent fuel composition; these isotopics are used in subsequent criticality calculations to assess the reduced worth of spent fuel. To validate the depletion codes and data, experiment is compared with predictions; such comparisons have been done in earlier ORNL work. This report describes additional independent measurements and corresponding calculations as a supplement. The current work includes measured isotopic data from 19 spent fuel samples from the Italian Trino Vercelles PWR and the US Turkey Point-3 PWR. In addition, an approach to determine biases and uncertainties between calculated and measured isotopic concentrations is discussed, together with a method to statistically combine these terms to obtain a conservative estimate of spent fuel isotopic concentrations. Results on combination of measured-to-calculated ratios are presented. The results described herein represent an extension to a new reactor design and spent fuel samples with enrichment as high as 3.9 wt% {sup 235}U. Consistency with the earlier work for each of two different cross-section libraries suggests that the estimated biases for each of the isotopes in the earlier work are reasonably good estimates
Recommended from our members
Validation of SCALE (SAS2H) isotopic predictions for BWR spent fuel
Thirty spent fuel samples obtained from boiling-water-reactor (BWR) fuel pins have been modeled at Oak Ridge National Laboratory using the SAS2H sequence of the SCALE code system. The SAS2H sequence uses transport methods combined with the depletion and decay capabilities of the ORIGEN-S code to estimate the isotopic composition of fuel as a function of its burnup history. Results of these calculations are compared with chemical assay measurements of spent fuel inventories for each sample. Results show reasonable agreement between measured and predicted isotopic concentrations for important actinides; however, little data are available for most fission products considered to be important for spent fuel concerns (e.g., burnup credit, shielding, source-term calculations, etc.). This work is a follow-up to earlier works that studied the ability to predict spent fuel compositions in pressurized-water-reactor (PWR) fuel pins. Biases and uncertainties associated with BWR isotopic predictions are found to be larger than those of PWR calculations. Such behavior is expected, as the operation of a BWR is significantly more complex than that of a PWR plant, and in general the design of a BWR has a more heterogeneous configuration than that of a PWR. Nevertheless, this work shows that the simple models employed using SAS2H to represent such complexities result in agreement to within 5% (and often less than 1%) or less for most nuclides important for spent fuel applications. On the other hand, however, the set of fuel samples analyzed represent a small subset of the BWR fuel population, and results reported herein may not be representative of the full population of BWR spent fuel
Recommended from our members
International studies on burnup credit criticality safety by an OECD/NEA working group
The results and conclusions from a six-year study by an international benchmarking group in the comparison of computational methods for evaluating burnup credit in criticality safety analyses is presented. Approximately 20 participants from 12 countries have provided results for most problems. Four detailed benchmark problems for pressurized-water-reactor fuel have been completed. Results from work being finalized, addressing burnup credit for boiling-water-reactor fuel, are discussed, as well as planned activities for additional benchmarks, including mixed-oxide fuels, and other activities
Recommended from our members
Potential benefits and impacts on the CRWMS transportation system of filling spent fuel shipping casks with depleted uranium silicate glass
A new technology, the Depleted Uranium Silicate COntainer Fill System (DUSCOFS), is proposed to improve the performance and reduce the uncertainties of geological disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF), thus reducing both radionuclide release rates from the waste package and the potential for repository nuclear criticality events. DUSCOFS may also provide benefits for SNF storage and transport if it is loaded into the container early in the waste management cycle. Assessments have been made of the benefits to be derived by placing depleted uranium silicate (DUS) glass into SNF containers for enhancing repository performance assessment and controlling criticality over geologic times in the repository. Also, the performance, benefits, and impacts which can be derived if the SNF is loaded into a multi-purpose canister with DUS glass at a reactor site have been assessed. The DUSCOFS concept and the benefits to the waste management cycle of implementing DUSCOFS early in the cycle are discussed in this paper
Recommended from our members
PRISMATIC CORE COUPLED TRANSIENT BENCHMARK
The Prismatic Modular Reactor (PMR) is one of the High Temperature Reactor (HTR) design concepts that have existed for some time. Several prismatic units have operated in the world (DRAGON, Fort St. Vrain, Peach Bottom) and one unit is still in operation (HTTR). The deterministic neutronics and thermal-fluids transient analysis tools and methods currently available for the design and analysis of PMRs have lagged behind the state of the art compared to LWR reactor technologies. This has motivated the development of more accurate and efficient tools for the design and safety evaluations of the PMR. In addition to the work invested in new methods, it is essential to develop appropriate benchmarks to verify and validate the new methods in computer codes. The purpose of this benchmark is to establish a well-defined problem, based on a common given set of data, to compare methods and tools in core simulation and thermal hydraulics analysis with a specific focus on transient events. The benchmark-working group is currently seeking OECD/NEA sponsorship. This benchmark is being pursued and is heavily based on the success of the PBMR-400 exercise