Abstract
SFCOMPO is the world's largest database for measured spent nuclear fuel assay data. An international effort coordinated by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) resulted in a significant expansion of the database and its release online in 2017 as a downloadable application. The SFCOMPO Technical Review Group (TRG) was recently formed under the direction of NEA's Nuclear Science Committee/Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety and was mandated to maintain and further coordinate the development of SFCOMPO. This TRG is currently focused on (1) critical evaluation of the experimental assay data by independent experts and (2) development of benchmarks and benchmark models that can be applied to validate burnup codes. This will improve the quality and documentation of the experimental datasets and enable their use by the international community to support code validation for design and safety analysis of spent nuclear fuel transportation, storage, and repository applications. It follows the precedent and draws on the experience gained from similar NEA efforts in the International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project and the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiment Project. Ongoing SFCOMPO evaluations have served as a test bed to develop templates for documenting evaluations, develop review guidance, improve approaches for a global uncertainty analysis, and devise a strategy focused on providing practical information of highest value to the user community. The current effort, status, and associated challenges are discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | International Conference on Physics of Reactors |
| Subtitle of host publication | Transition to a Scalable Nuclear Future, PHYSOR 2020 |
| Editors | Marat Margulis, Partrick Blaise |
| Publisher | EDP Sciences - Web of Conferences |
| Pages | 2099-2106 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781713827245 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2020 |
| Event | 2020 International Conference on Physics of Reactors: Transition to a Scalable Nuclear Future, PHYSOR 2020 - Cambridge, United Kingdom Duration: Mar 28 2020 → Apr 2 2020 |
Publication series
| Name | International Conference on Physics of Reactors: Transition to a Scalable Nuclear Future, PHYSOR 2020 |
|---|---|
| Volume | 2020-March |
Conference
| Conference | 2020 International Conference on Physics of Reactors: Transition to a Scalable Nuclear Future, PHYSOR 2020 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | United Kingdom |
| City | Cambridge |
| Period | 03/28/20 → 04/2/20 |
Funding
Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US 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 authors would like to acknowledge the funding provided for this work by the Office of Nuclear Energy within the US Department of Energy. The continuous support of SFCOMPO by the Nuclear Energy Agency’s Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety is much appreciated and acknowledged. Past development of SFCOMPO would not have been possible and successful without the valuable contributions of numerous experts from diverse institutions in many countries. Special thanks are extended to all of them for their dedication and the high quality of their work, as well as for their enthusiasm in continuing to contribute to the future of the SFCOMPO. Collection of historical data not yet captured will continue, to include additional Yankee Rowe PWR samples and additional MOX data for San Onofre PWR samples. The TRG has discussed releasing formerly proprietary data from the MALIBU program [9] for which the confidentiality period has expired. These data are of significant interest to the user community, given the high quality of the measurements, inclusion of cross-check measurements at different laboratories, and availability of data for a high-burnup sample (70 GWd/MTU). The release and evaluation of high-burnup data would provide important support to the industry’s effort to move toward higher (greater than 62 GWd/MTU) burnup fuels. Currently the database only includes three PWR samples with burnups greater than 70 GWd/MTU from the Vandellos PWR dataset contributed by Spain. New high-burnup samples may be added in the future from an ongoing experimental program [10] at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) that is funded by the US Department of Energy and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. These measurements will be performed on samples from fuel irradiated in the North Anna PWR [10]. The authors would like to acknowledge the funding provided for this work by the Office of Nuclear Energy within the US Department of Energy. The continuous support of SFCOMPO by the Nuclear Energy Agency's Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety is much appreciated and acknowledged. Past development of SFCOMPO would not have been possible and successful without the valuable contributions of numerous experts from diverse institutions in many countries. Special thanks are extended to all of them for their dedication and the high quality of their work, as well as for their enthusiasm in continuing to contribute to the future of the SFCOMPO.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Nuclear Energy Agency | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission | |
| Office of Nuclear Energy | |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory |
Keywords
- Benchmark
- Isotopic assay data
- SFCOMPO
- Spent nuclear fuel
