International comparison of a depletion calculation benchmark devoted to fuel cycle issues results from the phase 1 dedicated to PWR-UOx fuels

Roque, B.*; Gregg, R.*; Kilger, R.*; Laugier, F.*; Marimbeau, P.*; Ranta-Aho, A.*; Riffard, C.*; Suyama, Kenya; Thro, J. F.*; Yudkevich, M.*; et al.

Proceedings of American Nuclear Society Topical Meeting on Physics of Reactors (PHYSOR 2006) (CD-ROM), 10 Pages, 2006/09

This paper presents the results from the first phase of an international depletion calculations comparison devoted to UOx fuel cycle issues. This "benchmark" has been defined within the NEA/OECD Working Party on Scientific Issues in Reactors Systems (WPRS). The aim is to investigate a large range of isotopes, physics quantities applied to fuel and back-end cycle configurations. The results analyses have shown that there is a good agreement between participants for the mass calculation of many isotopes. In this benchmark, the poorest agreement is obtained in calculating activation products originating from fuel impurities. Some discrepancies on neutron emission rates were also observed, mainly due to the discrepancies on masses calculations. Good agreement was obtained for the total decay heat calculation.