Abstract
This paper presents the development of a lattice physics–to–core simulator two-step procedure for the rapid analysis of the Advanced High Temperature Reactor (AHTR). Lattice physics, reflector, and control blade models were developed from which cross-section libraries could be generated for a nodal core simulator. Few-group structures for the core simulator were also generated to account for the neutronic characteristics of AHTR. After developing the AHTR two-step procedure, cross-section libraries were generated using the SERPENT continuous-energy Monte Carlo code. These libraries were then used in the core simulator NESTLE to perform full-core calculations, which were in turn benchmarked against reference SERPENT full-core models. Benchmarking results showed reasonable accuracy of the developed two-step procedure but revealed an inherent inadequacy in the one-dimensional radial reflector model and showed a likely need for a greater number of energy groups than were used in this study.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 299-317 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | Nuclear Technology |
| Volume | 204 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2 2018 |
Funding
We would like to acknowledge Nicholas Luciano and Keith Ottinger for their outstanding help with NESTLE, as well as Jaakko Leppänen for his exemplary support with SERPENT. Some of the work performed in this project was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under the Nuclear Energy University Program project 12-3870, under prime contract number DE-AC07-05ID14517, for the project entitled “Fuel and Core Design Options to Overcome the Heavy Metal Loading Limit and Improve Performance and Safety of Liquid Salt Cooled Reactors.” The support provided by Bojan Petrovic and his team at the Georgia Institute of Technology under this grant is kindly appreciated. This research used resources of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility supported under contract number DE-AC05-00OR22725.
Keywords
- FLiBe, advanced high temperature reactor
- TRISO