OECD/NEA intercomparison of deterministic and monte carlo cross-section sensitivity codes using sneak-7 benchmarks

Abstract : A sensitivity benchmark exercise was organized within the scope of the Uncertainty Analysis in Modeling (UAM) project of the OECD/Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) to develop and compare methods for the sensitivity and uncertainty computations of the effective multiplication factor (keff) and the effective delayed neutron fraction (eff). Several solutions were received using different codes, both deterministic (SUSD3D, SNATCH) and Monte Carlo (TSUNAMI-3D, XSUSA, SERPENT2, MCNP6). In this paper the performances of several codes and methods for the keff sensitivity and uncertainty computations are intercompared. The sensitivity and uncertainty codes were applied to the SNEAK-7A and -7B fast neutron benchmark experiments from the IRPhE database. Good general agreement between the sensitivities, both for integral values and sensitivity profiles, was observed.