VERA benchmarking results for Krŝko Nuclear Power plant cycle 1

Andrew Godfrey, Matthew Jessee, Shane Stimpson, Benjamin Collins, Thomas Evans, Marjan Kromar, Fausto Franceschini, David Salazar

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL), the first US Department of Energy (DOE) Innovation Hub, has developed a high-fidelity suite of methods and software for engineering analyses of commercial nuclear power plants. The Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA) has been successfully developed and applied to several reactor types operated or designed by CASL partners. To broaden its validation basis, VERA was applied to the Nuklearna elektrarna Krško, a European two-loop Westing-house-designed pressurized water reactor (PWR) with 16×16 fuel. VERA enables multigroup deterministic and continuous-energy Monte Carlo neutron transport for the entire reactor using the same basic input and output features. Deterministic methods are directly coupled to a two-phase subchannel thermal-hydraulic method and an in-line isotopic decay and depletion module for 3D whole-core power distribution and fuel depletion analyses. VERA's performance for full core calculations is documented, and the results are compared to measured critical boron concentrations, startup physics tests results, and measured radial power distributions from Krsko Cycle 1. Results are also compared to calculations from the Jozef Stefan Institute (JSI) CORD-2 package routinely used for verification of the Krsko reload cores. Finally, comparisons are made for a set of 2D lattice depletions performed by Serpent and Polaris for additional verification.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationPhysics of Reactors 2016, PHYSOR 2016
Subtitle of host publicationUnifying Theory and Experiments in the 21st Century
PublisherAmerican Nuclear Society
Pages3998-4008
Number of pages11
ISBN (Electronic)9781510825734
StatePublished - 2016
EventPhysics of Reactors 2016: Unifying Theory and Experiments in the 21st Century, PHYSOR 2016 - Sun Valley, United States
Duration: May 1 2016May 5 2016

Publication series

NamePhysics of Reactors 2016, PHYSOR 2016: Unifying Theory and Experiments in the 21st Century
Volume6

Conference

ConferencePhysics of Reactors 2016: Unifying Theory and Experiments in the 21st Century, PHYSOR 2016
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySun Valley
Period05/1/1605/5/16

Keywords

  • CASL
  • KRSKO
  • PWR
  • VERA

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