Inter-code comparison of TRIPOLI and MVP on the MCNP criticality validation suite

Brun, E.*; Zoia, A.*; Trama, J. C.*; Lahaye, S.*; Nagaya, Yasunobu  

This paper presents a joint work conducted at CEA Saclay and JAEA Tokai aimed at comparing the Monte Carlo codes TRIPOLI and MVP on a selection of ICSBEP benchmarks. Our goal is to establish a common set of Monte Carlo input decks, as a basis for rigorous inter-code comparison in criticality-safety. As a reference, we will use the MCNP Criticality Validation Suite: other Monte Carlo developers might easily join that effort in the future. For the purpose of inter-code comparison, the TRIPOLI and MVP input decks have been translated from those of MCNP, without any further assumptions. Both TRIPOLI and MVP have been run with the same ENDF/B-VII.0 evaluated nuclear data, and as far as possible the same simulation options as in the original LANL work. In this abstract, we present preliminary results on the BIGTEN benchmark. In the full paper these will be extended to the 31 benchmarks of the MCNP Criticality Validation Suite. In the future, this database will also help in the analysis of sensitivity to nuclear data, CPU times and figures of merit.