BN-600 Hybrid core benchmark analyses

Y. I. Kim (1) , A. Stanculescu (1) , P. Finck (2) , R.N. Hill (2) , K.N. Grimm (2) , G. Rimpault (3) , T. Newton (4) , Z.H. Li (5) , P. Mohanakrishnan (6) , M. Ishikawa (7) , H. Song (8) , M. Farakshin (9) , V. Stogov (10)

1 IAEA - International Atomic Energy Agency [Vienna]
2 ANL - Argonne National Laboratory [Lemont]
3 CEA-DES (ex-DEN) - CEA-Direction des Energies (ex-Direction de l'Energie Nucléaire)
4 SERCO Assurance (SA)
5 CIAE - China Institute of Atomic Energy
6 Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research
7 Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute
8 KAERI - Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute [Daejeon, south Korea]
9 Russian Federation
10 IPPE - Institute for Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE)

Benchmark analyses for the hybrid BN-600 reactor that contains three uranium enrichment zones and one plutonium zone in the core, have been performed within the frame of an IAEA sponsored Coordinated Research Project. The results for several relevant reactivity parameters obtained by the participants with their own state-of-the-art basic data and codes, were compared in terms of calculational uncertainty, and their effects on the ULOF transient behavior of the hybrid BN-600 core were evaluated. The comparison of the diffusion and transport results obtained for the homogeneous representation generally shows good agreement for most parameters between the RZ and HEX-Z models. The burnup effect and the heterogeneity effect on most reactivity parameters also show good agreement for the HEX-Z diffusion and transport theory results. A large difference noticed for the sodium and steel density coefficients is mainly due to differences in the spatial coefficient predictions for non-fuelled regions. The burnup reactivity loss was evaluated to be 0.025 (4.3 $) within ~ 5.0% standard deviation. The heterogeneity effect on most reactivity coefficients was estimated to be small. The heterogeneity treatment reduced the control rod worth by 2.3%. The heterogeneity effect on the k eff and control rod worth appeared to differ strongly depending on the heterogeneity treatment method. A substantial spread noticed for several reactivity coefficients did not give a significant impact on the transient behavior prediction. This result is attributable to compensating effects between several reactivity effects and the specific design of the partially MOX fuelled hybrid core.

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

Y. I. Kim, A. Stanculescu, P. Finck, R.N. Hill, K.N. Grimm, et al.. BN-600 Hybrid core benchmark analyses. PHYSOR 2002 - International Conference on the New Frontiers of Nuclear Technology: Reactor Physics, Safety and High-Performance Computing, Oct 2002, Seoul, South Korea. ⟨cea-02906391⟩