Open AccessDIFFERENCES IN EXIT BURNUP, DEPLETION, AND FUEL REACTIVITY CALCULATIONS ARISING FROM THE CHOICE OF MODELLING CODE FOR BUNDLES WITH THORIUM AND URANIUM
Author(s) -
G.W.R. Edwards,
Ashlea V. Colton,
Blair P. Bromley
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
cnl nuclear review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2369-6931
pISSN - 2369-6923
DOI - 10.12943/cnr.2018.00011
Subject(s) - burnup , nuclear engineering , thorium , reactivity (psychology) , enriched uranium , benchmark (surveying) , neutron transport , nuclear physics , uranium , thorium fuel cycle , natural uranium , neutron , radiochemistry , physics , chemistry , engineering , geology , medicine , alternative medicine , geodesy , pathology
A computational benchmark, using the deterministic codes WIMS-AECL and WOBI, and the stochastic code SERPENT, is made for burnup calculations of advanced thorium fuels in heavy water moderated reactors. Exit burnups and the concentration of the longer-lived actinides from the deterministic code set of WIMS-AECL and WOBI, which are 2-D, were compared to those from a full 3-D calculation in SERPENT. Results for reactivity vs. time are in general agreement to within a few mk (<1% in overall neutron multiplication) and appear to be systematic. Results for exit burnup were larger, in the 3%–6% range, because small reactivity effects can be amplified here.