Neutron multiplication in random media: Reactivity and kinetics parameters

Coline Larmier (1) , Andrea Zoia (1) , Fausto Malvagi (1) , Eric Dumonteil (2) , Alain Mazzolo (1)

1 CEA-DES (ex-DEN) - CEA-Direction des Energies (ex-Direction de l'Energie Nucléaire)
2 IRSN - Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire

Eigenvalue problems for neutron transport in random geometries are key for many applications, ranging from reactor design to criticality safety. In this work we examine the behaviour of the reactivity and of the kinetics parameters (the effective delayed neutron fraction and the effective neutron generationtime) for three-dimensional UOX and MOX assembly configurations where aportion of the fuel pins has been randomly fragmented by using various mixingstatistics. For this purpose, we have selected stochastic tessellations of the Poisson, Voronoi and Box type, which provide convenient models for the randompartitioning of space, and we have generated an ensemble of assembly realizations; for each geometry realization, criticality calculations have been performedby using the Monte Carlo code TRIPOLI-4 developed at CEA. We have then examined the evolution of the ensemble-averaged observables of interest as afunction of the average chord length of the random geometries, which is roughlyproportional to the correlation length of the fuel fragmentation. The methodology proposed in this work is fairly general and could be applied, e.g., to theassessment of re-criticality probability following severe accidents.

Keywords: TRIPOLI-4; Monte Carlo; Random media; Kinetics parameters; Markov tessellations; Poisson; Voronoi

Domains: Physics [physics]; Nuclear Experiment [nucl-ex]; Physics [physics]; Nuclear Theory [nucl-th]

Coline Larmier, Andrea Zoia, Fausto Malvagi, Eric Dumonteil, Alain Mazzolo. Neutron multiplication in random media: Reactivity and kinetics parameters. Annals of Nuclear Energy, 2017, 111, pp.391-406. ⟨10.1016/j.anucene.2017.09.006⟩. ⟨cea-02421745⟩