MC21/CTF and VERA multiphysics solutions to VERA core physics benchmark progression problems 6 and 7

Daniel J. Kelly; Ann E. Kelly; Brian N. Aviles; Andrew T. Godfrey; Robert K. Salko; Benjamin S. Collins

doi:10.1016/j.net.2017.07.016

MC21/CTF and VERA multiphysics solutions to VERA core physics benchmark progression problems 6 and 7

Daniel J. Kelly, Ann E. Kelly, Brian N. Aviles, Andrew T. Godfrey, Robert K. Salko, Benjamin S. Collins

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

41 Scopus citations

Abstract

The continuous energy Monte Carlo neutron transport code, MC21, was coupled to the CTF subchannel thermal-hydraulics code using a combination of Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) tools and in-house Python scripts. An MC21/CTF solution for VERA Core Physics Benchmark Progression Problem 6 demonstrated good agreement with MC21/COBRA-IE and VERA solutions. The MC21/CTF solution for VERA Core Physics Benchmark Progression Problem 7, Watts Bar Unit 1 at beginning of cycle hot full power equilibrium xenon conditions, is the first published coupled Monte Carlo neutronics/subchannel T-H solution for this problem. MC21/CTF predicted a critical boron concentration of 854.5 ppm, yielding a critical eigenvalue of 0.99994 ± 6.8E-6 (95% confidence interval). Excellent agreement with a VERA solution of Problem 7 was also demonstrated for integral and local power and temperature parameters.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1326-1338
Number of pages	13
Journal	Nuclear Engineering and Technology
Volume	49
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.net.2017.07.016
State	Published - Sep 2017

Funding

The Naval Nuclear Laboratory authors would like to thank the MC21 and PUMA development teams for their support during this research. Work for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory authors was funded by the DOE-sponsored “ Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors ” (CASL) project, and ORNL research used resources of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 . CASL research made use of the resources of the High Performance Computing Center at Idaho National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Nuclear Energy of the US Department of Energy and the Nuclear Science User Facility under Contract No. DE-AC07-05ID14517 .

Funders	Funder number
U.S. Department of Energy	DE-AC05-00OR22725, DE-AC07-05ID14517
Office of Science
Office of Nuclear Energy
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Keywords

CTF
MC21
MPACT
Multiphysics
VERA

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10.1016/j.net.2017.07.016

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title = "MC21/CTF and VERA multiphysics solutions to VERA core physics benchmark progression problems 6 and 7",

abstract = "The continuous energy Monte Carlo neutron transport code, MC21, was coupled to the CTF subchannel thermal-hydraulics code using a combination of Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) tools and in-house Python scripts. An MC21/CTF solution for VERA Core Physics Benchmark Progression Problem 6 demonstrated good agreement with MC21/COBRA-IE and VERA solutions. The MC21/CTF solution for VERA Core Physics Benchmark Progression Problem 7, Watts Bar Unit 1 at beginning of cycle hot full power equilibrium xenon conditions, is the first published coupled Monte Carlo neutronics/subchannel T-H solution for this problem. MC21/CTF predicted a critical boron concentration of 854.5 ppm, yielding a critical eigenvalue of 0.99994 ± 6.8E-6 (95% confidence interval). Excellent agreement with a VERA solution of Problem 7 was also demonstrated for integral and local power and temperature parameters.",

keywords = "CTF, MC21, MPACT, Multiphysics, VERA",

author = "Kelly, {Daniel J.} and Kelly, {Ann E.} and Aviles, {Brian N.} and Godfrey, {Andrew T.} and Salko, {Robert K.} and Collins, {Benjamin S.}",

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AU - Kelly, Daniel J.

AU - Kelly, Ann E.

AU - Aviles, Brian N.

AU - Godfrey, Andrew T.

AU - Salko, Robert K.

AU - Collins, Benjamin S.

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AB - The continuous energy Monte Carlo neutron transport code, MC21, was coupled to the CTF subchannel thermal-hydraulics code using a combination of Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) tools and in-house Python scripts. An MC21/CTF solution for VERA Core Physics Benchmark Progression Problem 6 demonstrated good agreement with MC21/COBRA-IE and VERA solutions. The MC21/CTF solution for VERA Core Physics Benchmark Progression Problem 7, Watts Bar Unit 1 at beginning of cycle hot full power equilibrium xenon conditions, is the first published coupled Monte Carlo neutronics/subchannel T-H solution for this problem. MC21/CTF predicted a critical boron concentration of 854.5 ppm, yielding a critical eigenvalue of 0.99994 ± 6.8E-6 (95% confidence interval). Excellent agreement with a VERA solution of Problem 7 was also demonstrated for integral and local power and temperature parameters.

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MC21/CTF and VERA multiphysics solutions to VERA core physics benchmark progression problems 6 and 7

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