Benchmark study on fuel performance codes for fast reactors

Under the auspices of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Nuclear Science Committee (NSC), the Working Party on the Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle (WPFC) has been established to co-ordinate scientific activities regarding various existing and advanced nuclear fuel cycles, including advanced reactor systems, associated reprocessing, development and performance of fuels and materials, accelerators and spallation targets. Various expert groups were established to cover the above-mentioned topics. The Expert Group on Innovative Fuels (EGIF) was established with the objective of conducting joint and comparative studies to support the development of innovative fuels such as homogeneous and heterogeneous fuels, ADS fuels, and oxide, metal, nitride and carbide fuels, all of which can be implemented in advanced nuclear fuel cycles with fast reactors. The scope of the expert group covers innovative fuel fabrication techniques, irradiation performance of innovative fuels, characterisation and post-irradiation examination methods and fuel performance codes for innovative fuel. As part of its 2014-2018 activities, the Expert Group on Innovative Fuels (EGIF) has carried out a benchmark study on fuel performance codes. Seven irradiations under normal operating conditions on fast reactor metal and oxide fuels have been calculated with several fuel performance codes: ALFUS (CRIEPI, Japan), CEPTAR (JAEA, Japan), GERMINAL (CEA, France), MACSIS (KAERI, Korea), TRANSURANUS (JRC-Karlsruhe, EU), FEMAXI (KIT, Germany). The calculated irradiations: B8-HAM, SUPERFACT, SMIRP-1, AFC-1H, AFC-2C, X501, METAPHIX 2, were carried out in the EBR-II reactors (USA), Phénix (France), JOYO (Japan), ATR (USA) or HANARO (South Korea). The studied fuels were mixed oxides (U, Pu) O₂ and metallic alloys U-Pu-Zr, with a small percentage of minor actinides (Americium with Neptunium and Curium in some cases) with the exception of the SMIRP-1 irradiation fuel of U-10Zr(Ce). The characteristics of the pins and fuels considered, the irradiation data and the results of the post-irradiation examinations, shared among the participants, will help enrich the database of irradiations for minor actinides transmutation. The paper will present the main results of the calculations with the different fuel performance codes and the comparison with the experimental results.