TY - GEN
T1 - VERA benchmarking results for watts bar nuclear plant unit 1 cycles 1-12
AU - Godfrey, Andrew
AU - Collins, Benjamin
AU - Kim, Kang Seog
AU - Powers, Jeffrey
AU - Salko, Robert
AU - Stimpson, Shane
AU - Wieselquist, William
AU - Clarno, Kevin
AU - Gehin, Jess
AU - Palmtag, Scott
AU - Montgomery, Robert
AU - Montgomery, Rosemary
AU - Jabaay, Daniel
AU - Kochunas, Brendan
AU - Downar, Thomas
AU - Capps, Nathan
AU - Secker, Jeffrey
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - The Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors, the first US DOE Energy Innovation Hub, is developing and deploying a suite of directly coupled, high-fidelity physics methods known as VERA for performing engineering analyses of operating commercial nuclear power reactors. The centerpiece of VERA is the reactor core simulator, which employs the direct coupling of a 3D neutron transport code, a two-phase sub-channel thermal-hydraulic code, and a well-known isotopic depletion and decay code. Together these tools represent the most rigorous reactor simulator available today. Recently added capabilities include the depletion, shuffling, and discharge of fuel assemblies, enabling VERA to simulate multiple fuel cycles of operation. To demonstrate this capability, VERA has been used to simulate over 18 years of operation of TVA's Watts Bar Nuclear Unit 1, and the results of these calculations have been used to quantify its performance in an industry-grade benchmarking activity. Comparisons are made with measured critical boron concentrations, control bank reactivity worths, isothermal temperature coefficients, and in-core neutron flux distributions. These results demonstrate that the advanced tools in VERA are capable for application to practical and common industrial problems.
AB - The Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors, the first US DOE Energy Innovation Hub, is developing and deploying a suite of directly coupled, high-fidelity physics methods known as VERA for performing engineering analyses of operating commercial nuclear power reactors. The centerpiece of VERA is the reactor core simulator, which employs the direct coupling of a 3D neutron transport code, a two-phase sub-channel thermal-hydraulic code, and a well-known isotopic depletion and decay code. Together these tools represent the most rigorous reactor simulator available today. Recently added capabilities include the depletion, shuffling, and discharge of fuel assemblies, enabling VERA to simulate multiple fuel cycles of operation. To demonstrate this capability, VERA has been used to simulate over 18 years of operation of TVA's Watts Bar Nuclear Unit 1, and the results of these calculations have been used to quantify its performance in an industry-grade benchmarking activity. Comparisons are made with measured critical boron concentrations, control bank reactivity worths, isothermal temperature coefficients, and in-core neutron flux distributions. These results demonstrate that the advanced tools in VERA are capable for application to practical and common industrial problems.
KW - CASL
KW - CTF
KW - MPACT
KW - ORIGEN
KW - VERA
KW - Watts bar
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84992046904&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84992046904
T3 - Physics of Reactors 2016, PHYSOR 2016: Unifying Theory and Experiments in the 21st Century
SP - 3983
EP - 3997
BT - Physics of Reactors 2016, PHYSOR 2016
PB - American Nuclear Society
T2 - Physics of Reactors 2016: Unifying Theory and Experiments in the 21st Century, PHYSOR 2016
Y2 - 1 May 2016 through 5 May 2016
ER -