Coupled neutronics and species transport simulation of the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment

Kyoung O. Lee; Matthew A. Jessee; Aaron M. Graham; David J. Kropaczek

doi:10.1016/j.nucengdes.2023.112824

Coupled neutronics and species transport simulation of the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment

Kyoung O. Lee, Matthew A. Jessee, Aaron M. Graham, David J. Kropaczek

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper presents the development of coupling between the molten salt reactor species transport code Mole and the reactor physics code Griffin. In this study, tracking of delayed neutron precursors was investigated in the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE), accounting for changes in fuel flow velocity as a function of position in the primary loop. The neutron transport calculations in Griffin were performed using 11 energy groups, and the species advection calculations in Mole used 6 delayed neutron precursor groups to predict spatial distribution of the neutron flux and neutron precursors in the MSRE. Mole–Griffin was used to calculate k_eff and β_eff in the reactor as a function of different volumetric flow rates.

Original language	English
Article number	112824
Journal	Nuclear Engineering and Design
Volume	417
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2023.112824
State	Published - Feb 2024

Funding

This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the United States Department of Energy (DOE) . The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ). The development of the Mole code for MSR analysis is part of the Nuclear Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program supported by the US Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy ( Lee et al., 2022 ). Mole is built on the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework to enable multiphysics coupling with other MOOSE-based applications. Mole is an emerging MSR analysis capability, with ongoing development to accurately model advective mass transfer with nuclear transmutation to simulate the transport of radionuclide species undergoing multiphase transitions. This includes a variety of phenomena such as neutron activation, advection, leaching from system components to fluids, phase transitions, and diffusion of species between bubbles of the off-gas system and fluids for deposition of species from fluids to system components. Mole is designed for multiphysics coupling with other physics codes, tracking and updating the spatial distributions of species, and providing updated distributions back to the other codes. This type of multiphysics calculation is expected to answer important safety and licensing questions unique to MSRs. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the United States Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).This work has been carried out in the framework of the NEAMS (Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation) program supported by the United States Department of Energy. This work has been carried out in the framework of the NEAMS (Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation) program supported by the United States Department of Energy .

Funders	Funder number
DOE Public Access Plan
Nuclear Advanced Modeling and Simulation
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Nuclear Energy
UT-Battelle	DE-AC05-00OR22725

Keywords

Advection
MSRE
Multiphysics
Neutron transport

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10.1016/j.nucengdes.2023.112824

Cite this

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title = "Coupled neutronics and species transport simulation of the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment",

abstract = "This paper presents the development of coupling between the molten salt reactor species transport code Mole and the reactor physics code Griffin. In this study, tracking of delayed neutron precursors was investigated in the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE), accounting for changes in fuel flow velocity as a function of position in the primary loop. The neutron transport calculations in Griffin were performed using 11 energy groups, and the species advection calculations in Mole used 6 delayed neutron precursor groups to predict spatial distribution of the neutron flux and neutron precursors in the MSRE. Mole–Griffin was used to calculate keff and βeff in the reactor as a function of different volumetric flow rates.",

keywords = "Advection, MSRE, Multiphysics, Neutron transport",

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N2 - This paper presents the development of coupling between the molten salt reactor species transport code Mole and the reactor physics code Griffin. In this study, tracking of delayed neutron precursors was investigated in the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE), accounting for changes in fuel flow velocity as a function of position in the primary loop. The neutron transport calculations in Griffin were performed using 11 energy groups, and the species advection calculations in Mole used 6 delayed neutron precursor groups to predict spatial distribution of the neutron flux and neutron precursors in the MSRE. Mole–Griffin was used to calculate keff and βeff in the reactor as a function of different volumetric flow rates.

AB - This paper presents the development of coupling between the molten salt reactor species transport code Mole and the reactor physics code Griffin. In this study, tracking of delayed neutron precursors was investigated in the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE), accounting for changes in fuel flow velocity as a function of position in the primary loop. The neutron transport calculations in Griffin were performed using 11 energy groups, and the species advection calculations in Mole used 6 delayed neutron precursor groups to predict spatial distribution of the neutron flux and neutron precursors in the MSRE. Mole–Griffin was used to calculate keff and βeff in the reactor as a function of different volumetric flow rates.

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VL - 417

JO - Nuclear Engineering and Design

JF - Nuclear Engineering and Design

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Coupled neutronics and species transport simulation of the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment

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