Nuclear Data Needs Supporting Gen-IV Applications - INL Perspective and Initiatives

Studies conducted in connection with the Department of Energy (DOE) Generation IV (Gen-IV) and Advanced Fuel Cycle (AFC) programs show that the transuranic nuclides can strongly influence the neutronic behavior of some advanced nuclear energy systems of interest. Essentially all integral nuclear parameters computed using modern reactor physics codes and data libraries are affected by propagation of uncertainty in the underlying nuclear data used in the computational models. These parameters include: Criticality (multiplication factor) Reactivity feedback coefficients (e.g., Doppler, Coolant Void) Kinetics parameters (e.g., Effective Delayed Neutron Fraction) Reactivity loss during irradiation (Burnup Swing) Peak power value Conversion ratio of sustainable cores Transmutation potential of burner cores Max dpa, maximum helium- and hydrogen-production, etc. Decay heat, radiotoxicity, and neutron and gamma radiation levels However, the necessary cross section information may be unavailable with the required accuracy from the current nuclear databases for some key nuclides of interest. As a specific example, recent sensitivity analyses for the Very High Temperature Gen-IV reactor concept (Taiwo et al, 2005a, Salvatores et al., 2005, Taiwo et al, 2005b), which features a somewhat harder thermal neutron spectrum and a significantly higher fuel burnup target than is the case for standard light-water reactors, show a potential need for improved cross sections for some isotopes, including 238U, 239Pu, 240Pu, 41Pu, and 243Am, primarily in the resonance energy range, in order to satisfy the defined accuracy requirements on key computed integral parameters. Other transuranic nuclides may be of similar importance for some of the other Gen-IV concepts, although the primary needs appear to be currently focused around a few plutonium and americium isotopes. The target accuracies identified in these studies are very stringent and will be a challenge to achieve in many cases. In this article we briefly review the conclusions and recommendations of recent international workshops on nuclear data needs for Gen-IV. Following this is a discussion of two specific activities undertaken by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to participate in the international effort to address these needs

Neutron Sources and Applications in Radiotherapy- A Brief History, and Current Trends

A brief review of the uses of neutrons in external-beam radiotherapy is presented, with an emphasis on development and testing of epithermal neutron sources for neutron capture therapy applicat

Advanced Test Reactor Core Modeling Update Project Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2013

Legacy computational reactor physics software tools and protocols currently used for support of Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) core fuel management and safety assurance, and to some extent, experiment management, are inconsistent with the state of modern nuclear engineering practice, and are difficult, if not impossible, to verify and validate (V&V) according to modern standards. Furthermore, the legacy staff knowledge required for effective application of these tools and protocols from the 1960s and 1970s is rapidly being lost due to staff turnover and retirements. In late 2009, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) initiated a focused effort, the ATR Core Modeling Update Project, to address this situation through the introduction of modern high-fidelity computational software and protocols. This aggressive computational and experimental campaign will have a broad strategic impact on the operation of the ATR, both in terms of improved computational efficiency and accuracy for support of ongoing DOE programs as well as in terms of national and international recognition of the ATR National Scientific User Facility (NSUF)

Advanced Test Reactor Core Modeling Update Project Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2011

Legacy computational reactor physics software tools and protocols currently used for support of Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) core fuel management and safety assurance and, to some extent, experiment management are obsolete, inconsistent with the state of modern nuclear engineering practice, and are becoming increasingly difficult to properly verify and validate (V&V). Furthermore, the legacy staff knowledge required for application of these tools and protocols from the 1960s and 1970s is rapidly being lost due to staff turnover and retirements. In 2009 the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) initiated a focused effort to address this situation through the introduction of modern high-fidelity computational software and protocols, with appropriate V&V, within the next 3-4 years via the ATR Core Modeling and Simulation and V&V Update (or 'Core Modeling Update') Project. This aggressive computational and experimental campaign will have a broad strategic impact on the operation of the ATR, both in terms of improved computational efficiency and accuracy for support of ongoing DOE programs as well as in terms of national and international recognition of the ATR National Scientific User Facility (NSUF). The ATR Core Modeling Update Project, targeted for full implementation in phase with the anticipated ATR Core Internals Changeout (CIC) in the 2014 time frame, began during the last quarter of Fiscal Year 2009, and has just completed its first full year. Key accomplishments so far have encompassed both computational as well as experimental work. A new suite of stochastic and deterministic transport theory based reactor physics codes and their supporting nuclear data libraries (SCALE, KENO-6, HELIOS, NEWT, and ATTILA) have been installed at the INL under various permanent sitewide license agreements and corresponding baseline models of the ATR and ATRC are now operational, demonstrating the basic feasibility of these code packages for their intended purpose. Furthermore, a capability for rigorous sensitivity analysis and uncertainty quantification based on the TSUNAMI system is being implemented and initial computational results have been obtained. This capability will have many applications in 2011 and beyond as a tool for understanding the margins of uncertainty in the new models as well as for validation experiment design and interpretation. Finally we note that although full implementation of the new computational models and protocols will extend over a period 3-4 years as noted above, interim applications in the much nearer term have already been demonstrated. In particular, these demonstrations included an analysis that was useful for understanding the cause of some issues in December 2009 that were triggered by a larger than acceptable discrepancy between the measured excess core reactivity and a calculated value that was based on the legacy computational methods. As the Modeling Update project proceeds we anticipate further such interim, informal, applications in parallel with formal qualification of the system under the applicable INL Quality Assurance procedures and standards

Advanced Test Reactor Core Modeling Update Project Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2011

Legacy computational reactor physics software tools and protocols currently used for support of Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) core fuel management and safety assurance and, to some extent, experiment management are obsolete, inconsistent with the state of modern nuclear engineering practice, and are becoming increasingly difficult to properly verify and validate (V&V). Furthermore, the legacy staff knowledge required for application of these tools and protocols from the 1960s and 1970s is rapidly being lost due to staff turnover and retirements. In 2009 the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) initiated a focused effort to address this situation through the introduction of modern high-fidelity computational software and protocols, with appropriate V&V, within the next 3-4 years via the ATR Core Modeling and Simulation and V&V Update (or 'Core Modeling Update') Project. This aggressive computational and experimental campaign will have a broad strategic impact on the operation of the ATR, both in terms of improved computational efficiency and accuracy for support of ongoing DOE programs as well as in terms of national and international recognition of the ATR National Scientific User Facility (NSUF). The ATR Core Modeling Update Project, targeted for full implementation in phase with the anticipated ATR Core Internals Changeout (CIC) in the 2014 time frame, began during the last quarter of Fiscal Year 2009, and has just completed its first full year. Key accomplishments so far have encompassed both computational as well as experimental work. A new suite of stochastic and deterministic transport theory based reactor physics codes and their supporting nuclear data libraries (SCALE, KENO-6, HELIOS, NEWT, and ATTILA) have been installed at the INL under various permanent sitewide license agreements and corresponding baseline models of the ATR and ATRC are now operational, demonstrating the basic feasibility of these code packages for their intended purpose. Furthermore, a capability for rigorous sensitivity analysis and uncertainty quantification based on the TSUNAMI system is being implemented and initial computational results have been obtained. This capability will have many applications in 2011 and beyond as a tool for understanding the margins of uncertainty in the new models as well as for validation experiment design and interpretation. Finally we note that although full implementation of the new computational models and protocols will extend over a period 3-4 years as noted above, interim applications in the much nearer term have already been demonstrated. In particular, these demonstrations included an analysis that was useful for understanding the cause of some issues in December 2009 that were triggered by a larger than acceptable discrepancy between the measured excess core reactivity and a calculated value that was based on the legacy computational methods. As the Modeling Update project proceeds we anticipate further such interim, informal, applications in parallel with formal qualification of the system under the applicable INL Quality Assurance procedures and standards

COMBINE7.1 - A Portable ENDF/B-VII.0 Based Neutron Spectrum and Cross-Section Generation Program

COMBINE7.1 is a FORTRAN 90 computer code that generates multigroup neutron constants for use in the deterministic diffusion and transport theory neutronics analysis. The cross-section database used by COMBINE7.1 is derived from the Evaluated Nuclear Data Files (ENDF/B-VII.0). The neutron energy range covered is from 20 MeV to 1.0E-5 eV. The Los Alamos National Laboratory NJOY code is used as the processing code to generate a 167 fine-group cross-section library in MATXS format for Bondarenko self-shielding treatment. Resolved resonance parameters are extracted from ENDF/B-VII.0 File 2 for a separate library to be used in an alternate Nordheim self-shielding treatment in the resolved resonance energy range. The equations solved for energy dependent neutron spectrum in the 167 fine-group structure are the B-3 or B-1 approximations to the transport equation. The fine group cross sections needed for the spectrum calculation are first prepared by Bondarenko self-shielding interpolation in terms of background cross section and temperature. The geometric lump effect, when present, is accounted for by augmenting the background cross section. Nordheim self-shielded fine group cross sections for a material having resolved resonance parameters overwrite correspondingly the existing self-shielded fine group cross sections when this option is used. The fine group cross sections in the thermal energy range are replaced by those self-shielded with the Amouyal/Benoist/Horowitz method in the three region geometry when this option is requested. COMBINE7.1 coalesces fine group cross sections into broad group macroscopic and microscopic constants. The coalescing is performed by utilizing fine-group fluxes and/or currents obtained by spectrum calculation as the weighting functions. The multigroup constant may be output in any of several standard formats including ANISN 14** free format, CCCC ISOTXS format, and AMPX working library format. ANISN-PC, a one-dimensional, discrete-ordinate transport code, is incoprated into COMBINE7.1. As an option, the 167 fine-group constants generated by COMBINE portion in the program can be used to cacluate regionwise spectra in the ANISN portion, all internally to reflect the one-dimensional transport correction. Results for the criticality validation calculations are included as a part of verification and validation

A NEW SINGLE-CRYSTAL FILTERED THERMAL NEUTRON SOURCE FOR NEUTRON CAPTURE THERAPY RESEARCH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

Parameter studies, design calculations and initial neutronic performance measurements have been completed for a new thermal neutron beamline to be used for neutron capture therapy cell and small-animal radiobiology studies at the University of Missouri Research Reactor. The beamline features the use of single-crystal silicon and bismuth sections for neutron filtering and for reduction of incident gamma radiation. The calculated and measured thermal neutron flux produced at the irradiation location is on the order of 9.5x108 neutrons/cm2-s, with a measured cadmium ratio (Au foils) of 105, indicating a well-thermalized spectrum

VERIFICATION OF THE INL/COMBINE7 NEUTRON ENERGY SPECTRUM CODE

We construct semi-analytic benchmarks for the neutron slowing down equations in the thermal, resonance and fast energy regimes through mathematical embedding. The method features a fictitious time-dependent slowing down equations solved via Taylor series expansion over discrete “time” intervals. Two classes of benchmarks are considered- the first treats methods of solution and the second the multigroup approximation itself. We present several meaningful benchmark methods comparisons with the COMBINE7 energy spectrum code and a simple demonstration of convergence of the multigroup approximation

Initial Performance Characterization for a Thermalized Neutron Beam for Neutron Capture Therapy Research at Washington State University

The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) and Washington State University (WSU) have constructed a new epithermal-neutron beam for collaborative Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) preclinical research at the WSU TRIGATM research reactor facility1. More recently, additional beamline components were developed to permit the optional thermalization of the beam for certain types of studies where it is advantageous to use a thermal neutron source rather than an epithermal source. This article summarizes the results of some initial neutronic performance measurements for the thermalized system, with a comparison to the expected performance from the design computations

Providing Nuclear Criticality Safety Analysis Education through Benchmark Experiment Evaluation

One of the challenges that today's new workforce of nuclear criticality safety engineers face is the opportunity to provide assessment of nuclear systems and establish safety guidelines without having received significant experience or hands-on training prior to graduation. Participation in the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) and/or the International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project (IRPhEP) provides students and young professionals the opportunity to gain experience and enhance critical engineering skills