Extended calculations of OECD/NEA phase II-C burnup credit criticality benchmark problem for PWR spent fuel transport cask by using MCNP-4B2 code and JENDL-3.2 library

Kuroishi, Takeshi; Hoang, A.; Nomura, Yasushi; Okuno, Hiroshi  

The reactivity effect of the asymmetry of axial burnup profile is studied for PWR spent fuel transport cask proposed in OECD/NEA Phase II-C benchmark. The axial burnup profiles are based on in-core flux measurements. Criticality calculations are performed with the continuous energy Monte Carlo code MCNP-4B2 and the nuclear data library JENDL-3.2. Calculations are carried out not only for cases in the benchmark but also for symmetric burnup cases. Both actinide-only approach and actinide plus fission product approach is considered. The end effect is more sensitive to higher burnup asymmetry. The axial fission distribution becomes strongly asymmetric as its peak shifts toward the fuel top end. The peak of fission distribution gets higher with the increase of either the burnup asymmetry or the assembly-averaged burnup. The conservatism of uniform axial burnup assumption for the actinide-only approach is estimated quantitatively in comparison with the keff result calculated with experiment-based strongest asymmetric axial burnup profile for the actinide plus fission product approach.