ACE-FRENDY-CBZ; A New neutronics analysis sequence using multi-group neutron transport calculations

Chiba, Go*; Yamamoto, Akio*; Tada, Kenichi

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 60(2), p.132 - 139, 2023/02

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2022.2087783

A new multi-group neutronics analysis sequence ACE-FRENDY-CBZ is proposed. This sequence is free from uses of any application libraries; with the ACE files as the starting point, multi-group cross section data of media comprising a target system are calculated with the FRENDY code, and multi-group neutron transport calculations are performed with modules of the CBZ code system. The ACE-FRENDY-CBZ sequence was tested against the eight fast neutron systems, and good agreement with the reference Monte Carlo results was obtained within 30 pcm differences in the bare systems and the thorium-reflected system, and approximately 100 pcm differences in the uranium-reflected systems. The use of the current-weighted total cross sections in the multi-group neutron transport calculations had non-negligible impacts over 100 pcm on k-eff, and the calculations with the current-weighted total cross sections systematically underestimated k-eff in the uranium-reflected systems.

Preparation of methods to calculate pin-wise intra-subassembly power density distribution of a new in-pile experimental reactor for FBR safety research

Mizuno, Masahiro*; Uto, Nariaki

JNC TN9400 98-007, 147 Pages, 1998/11

JNC-TN9400-98-007.pdf:8.32MB

A design study of a new in-pile experimental reactor, SERAPH (Safety Engineering Reactor for Accident PHenomenology), for FBR safety research has progressed at JNC (Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute). SERAPH is intended for various in-pile experiments to be performed under steady state and various transient operation modes. Heavy water is selected as a coolant material for heat removal of the SERAPH driver core during the experiments. Control rods are needed to conduct the experiments, and a control rod with heavy water follower is considered as one of the promising ideas and is now under investigation. In this idea, care must be taken to avoid production of local power peaks which are caused by neutron moderation in the follower and may appear in the vicinity of the boundary between the control rod and its neighboring fuel subassembly, since deuterium has an excellently high moderation power. Therefore, preparation of some methods of evaluating power density distribution in detail is required for control rod design. This report describes preparation of a set of neutronic calculation methods to evaluate intra-subassembly power density distribution including local power peaks around a control rod. A two-dimensional S transport calculation code TWOTRAN-II is selected as a tool for evaluating neutron transport phenomena near the control rod with no cares for statistical influence. A two-dimensional rectangular super-cell model, which is a physical model composed of a control rod and its surrounding fifteen fuel sub-assemblies, and a method to construct the super-cell model based on thirteen unit cells are created, considering neutron mean free path near a control rod. Two processing tools are newly developed to generate a material region map and mesh boundaries for an efficient super-cell construction procedure and to obtain pin-wise power densities based on calculated mesh-wise neutron flux data. The results in this report are expected to be ...

Neutron transport calculations around the reactor pressure vessel by the ACE-FRENDY-CBZ sequence

Chiba, Go*; Tada, Kenichi; Yamamoto, Akio*

no journal, , 

The one-dimensional spherical multi-group neutron transport calculation was carried to calculate around the reactor pressure vessel by the ACE-FRENDY-CBZ sequence for the quantification of the prediction accuracy of this sequence. The fine energy groups calculation results showed a good agreement with the continuous-energy Monte Carlo code MVP. The calculation results indicate that the prediction accuracy of this method is higher than that of the conventional multi-group calculation method.