Validation of horus3d/n against tripoli-4$^R$d for core depletion calculation of the jules horowitz reactor

A. Chambon (1) , P. Vinai (1) , C. Demaziere (1) , L. Gaubert (2) , F. Jeury (2) , J. Politello (2) , P. Sireta (2)

1 Chalmers University of Technology [Göteborg]
2 CEA-DES (ex-DEN) - CEA-Direction des Energies (ex-Direction de l'Energie Nucléaire)

The international Jules Horowitz material testing Reactor (JHR) is under construction at CEA Cadarache research center, in southern France. Its first criticality is foreseen by the end of the decade. In order to perform JHR design and safety studies, a specific neutronics calculation tool, HORUS3D/N, based on the deterministic codes APOLLO2 and CRONOS2 and on the European nuclear data library JEFF3.1.1, was developed to calculate JHR neutronics parameters taking into account fuel depletion reactivity, power distribution, control rod reactivity worth, etc. Up to now, the biases and uncertainties on the different neutronics parameters computed with HORUS3D/N were assessed, in particular, by comparing HORUS3D/N deterministic calculations with reference route calculations based on APOLLO2-MOC and TRIPOLI-4$^R$. The use for JHR of the recent Monte-Carlo TRIPOLI-4 in its new Depletion mode (TRIPOLI-4$^R$D) will also allow providing biases for the main neutronics parameters under fuel depletion conditions. These biases will give a quantitative estimation of the impact of the approximations of the flux calculation in the deterministic route. This paper presents a contribution to the validation of HORUS3D/N based on the first comparisons between the calculations performed with APOLLO2-MOC and CRONOS2, and the ones from TRIPOLI-4$^R$D. The study is performed on 2-D calculations for two different clusters in an infinite lattice configuration. It focuses on the main parameters of interest isotopic concentrations, plate power distributions, reactivity, as functions of burnup. The results obtained show reasonable discrepancies with APOLLO2 calculation and allow to be confident on the APOLLO2.8/REL2005/CEA2005 package recommendations developed by CEA for light water reactor studies used in HORUS-3D/N. In particular, the main fuel isotopes are well predicted with TRIPOLI-4$^R$D with discrepancies values lower than -1.5 percent.

Mots clés: Depletion calculation; Monte-Carlo; HORUS-3D; JHR; TRIPOLI-4$^R$D

Domaines: Physique Nucléaire Expérimentale [nucl-ex]; Physique Nucléaire Théorique [nucl-th]

A. Chambon, P. Vinai, C. Demaziere, L. Gaubert, F. Jeury, et al.. Validation of horus3d/n against tripoli-4$^R$d for core depletion calculation of the jules horowitz reactor. Physor 2016, May 2016, Sun Valley, United States. pp.140-151. ⟨cea-02431809⟩