Secondary-Source Core Reload Modeling with VERA. (4th March 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gentry, Cole; Collins, Benjamin; Davidson, Eva; Davidson, Gregory; Evans, Thomas; Godfrey, Andrew; Hart, Shane; Ilas, Germina; Johnson, Seth; Kim, Kang Seog; Palmtag, Scott; Pandya, Tara; Royston, Katherine; Wieselquist, William; Wolfram, Gary
• Is Part Of: Nuclear science and engineering. Volume 195:Number 3(2020)
• Page Start: 320
• Page End: 337
• Publication Date: 2021-03-04
• Subjects: CASL -- VERA -- secondary source -- source range -- detector response; Nuclear energy -- Periodicals; Nuclear engineering -- Periodicals; Nuclear energy; Nuclear engineering; Periodicals; 539.705
• DOI: 10.1080/00295639.2020.1820797
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0029-5639

Abstract

Abstract: The CASL reactor simulation package VERA has been adapted to provide high-fidelity simulation capabilities for modeling source range detector response during subcritical reactor configurations. New features include the activation and shuffling of secondary-source assemblies, use of burned fuel neutron emission data from the ORIGEN depletion solver to the MPACT deterministic neutron transport solver, allowance of user-defined sources in MPACT based on material composition, ability to solve the subcritical source-driven system with neutron multiplication using the MPACT diffusion solver, and transfer of the calculated fission source from MPACT to the continuous-energy Monte Carlo solver Shift for final detector response evaluation using the CADIS methodology for variance reduction. These new capabilities were benchmarked against Watts Bar Unit 1 plant operating data for the first few fuel loading steps and were found to demonstrate excellent agreement with the measured data.