Assessment of WIMS-D5 Applicability to CANDU NPPs

The purpose of this study is to develop a WIMS/CANDU code for a lattice calculation on the basis of WIMS-D5 code for the safety analysis of CANDU reactors. To assess WIMS-D5 applicability to a CANDU reactor, a lattice model was developed for CANDU-6 reactors at the Wolsong site. As for the benchmark of the code validation, a code-to-code comparison was performed between the WIMS-D5 code with both the 69- and 172-energy groups of ENDF/B-VI nuclear data library and the WIMS-AECL code with the 89-energy group. The comparison studies of the reactor physics parameters such as the void reactivity and the coolant/fuel/moderator temperature coefficients were conducted with a change of the internal isotopic composition due to the fuel burning-up using both WIMS-AECL and POWDERPUFS-V (PPV) codes. The results show that the present results from WIMS-D5 code and WIMS-AECL code agreed well with those of the PPV at the beginning of the fuel burn-up phase. As the burning-up progresses, the results of WIMS-D5 show a large deviation from those of PPV for the CANDU 6 reactors.

Download Full-text

GENERATION AND INITIAL VALIDATION OF A NEW CASMO5 ENDF/B-VIII.0 NUCLEAR DATA LIBRARY

EPJ Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/epjconf/202124709001 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 247 ◽

pp. 09001

Author(s):

Rodolfo Ferrer ◽

Joel Rhodes

Keyword(s):

State Of The Art ◽

Group Structure ◽

Nuclear Data ◽

Fission Rate ◽

Energy Group ◽

Initial Validation ◽

Satisfactory Performance ◽

Nuclear Data Library ◽

Data Library ◽

Generation Procedure

A new nuclear data library for the CASMO5 advanced lattice physics code has been generated based on the recently-released ENDF/B-VIII.0 evaluation. The ENDF/B-VIII.0 evaluation represents the state-of-the-art in nuclear data and features new evaluations from the CIELO project for 1H, 16O, 56Fe, 235U, 238U and 239Pu. A description of the library generation procedure used to process these data into the CASMO5 586 energy group structure is provided. Initial validation of the new ENDF/B-VIII.0-based library, referred to as the E8R0 library, is also presented and involves the comparison of predicted k–eff and fission rate distributions to measurements from various critical experiments. The critical experiments used in the initial validation of the E8R0 library consist of the B&W 1810 series, B&W 1484 series, DIMPLE S06A/B, and TCA reflector experiment with iron plates. The results from the initial validation indicate that the new E8R0 library provides a satisfactory performance in terms of CASMO5 predicted k–eff and fission distributions.

Download Full-text

Validation of JEFF-3.3 and ENDF/B-VIII.0 nuclear data libraries in ANSWERS codes

EPJ Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/epjconf/202023919001 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 239 ◽

pp. 19001

Author(s):

Tim Ware ◽

David Hanlon ◽

Glynn Hosking ◽

Ray Perry ◽

Simon Richards

Keyword(s):

Cross Sections ◽

Nuclear Data ◽

Scattering Data ◽

Reactor Physics ◽

Group Data ◽

Nuclear Data Library ◽

Data Libraries ◽

Neutron Cross Sections ◽

Nuclear Data Libraries ◽

Data Library

The JEFF-3.3 and ENDF/B-VIII.0 evaluated nuclear data libraries were released in December 2017 and February 2018 respectively. Both evaluations represent a comprehensive update to their predecessor evaluations. The ANSWERS Software Service produces the MONK® and MCBEND Monte Carlo codes, and the WIMS deterministic code for nuclear criticality, shielding and reactor physics applications. MONK and MCBEND can utilise continuous energy nuclear data provided by the BINGO nuclear data library and MONK and WIMS can utilise broad energy group data (172 group XMAS scheme) via the WIMS nuclear data library. To produce the BINGO library, the BINGO Pre-Processor code is used to process ENDF-6 format evaluations. This utilises the RECONR-BROADR-PURR sequence of NJOY2016 to reconstruct and Doppler broaden the free gas neutron cross sections together with bespoke routines to generate cumulative distributions for the S(α,β) tabulations and equi-probable bins or probability functions for the secondary angle and energy data. To produce the WIMS library, NJOY2016 is again used to reconstruct and Doppler broaden the cross sections. The THERMR module is used to process the thermal scattering data. Preparation of data for system-dependent resonance shielding of some nuclides is performed. GROUPR is then used to produce the group averaged data before all the data are transformed into the specific WIMS library format. The MONK validation includes analyses based on around 800 configurations for a range of fuel and moderator types. The WIMS validation includes analyses of zero-energy critical and sub-critical, commissioning, operational and post-irradiation experiments for a range of fuel and moderator types. This paper presents and discusses the results of MONK and WIMS validation benchmark calculations using the JEFF-3.3 and ENDF/B-VIII.0 based BINGO and WIMS nuclear data libraries.

Download Full-text