Evaluation of neutronic characteristics of TRACY water-reflected core system

Sono, Hiroki ; Yanagisawa, Hiroshi* ; Miyoshi, Yoshinori

Prior to the supercritical experiments using a water-reflected core of the TRACY Facility, neutronic characteristics regarding criticality and reactivity of the core system were evaluated. In the analyses, a continuous energy Monte Carlo code, MVP, and a two-dimensional transport code, TWOTRAN, were used together with a nuclear data library, JENDL-3.3. By comparison to the characteristics in the former-used bare core system of TRACY, the water reflector was estimated not to change the kinetic parameter and to reduce the critical solution level by 20 %, the temperature coefficient of reactivity by 610 %, and the void coefficient of reactivity by 18 %, respectively. According to the Nordheim-Fuchs model, the first peak power during a power excursion was evaluated to be 15 % smaller than that in the bare system under the same conditions of fuel and reactivity insertion. The influence of the void feedback effect of reactivity, which is left out of consideration in the model, on the power characteristics will be evaluated from the results of the experiments.