Izvestiya vuzov. Yadernaya Energetika

The peer-reviewed scientific and technology journal. ISSN: 0204-3327

Comparison of the Calculation Accuracy of the Neutronics Characteristics of a Heavy Liquid Metal Cooled Fast Reactor Model Using the Various Evaluated Neutron Data Libraries

9/20/2024 2024 - #03 Modelling processes at nuclear facilities

Andrianov A.A. Andrianova O.N. Kuptsov I.S. Uvarova A.A.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.26583/npe.2024.3.09

UDC: 621.039.51

The paper analyses the neutron data and covariance matrixes, which are crucial for the calculation prediction of the neutronics characteristics of fast neutron reactors with uranium-plutonium fuel and currently available in the state-of-the-art versions of evaluated nuclear data libraries: ENDF/B-VIII, JENDL-5, TENDL 2021, JEFF 4T1. The newly obtained covariance data are compared to the data that was presented in the Russian evaluated nuclear data library BROND 3.1. A simplified model of a fast neutron reactor with mixed dense nitride uranium-plutonium fuel and a heavy liquid metal coolant was applied to calculate the spread of neutronics characteristic values and their uncertainties due to neutron data using various evaluated nuclear data libraries for the following characteristics: effective multiplication factor, effective delayed neutron fraction. Doppler reactivity coefficient, breeding ratio and gain, reactivity margin for fuel burnup and other fuel burnup characteristics. It has been observed that, on the whole, the uncertainties of the reactor functionals have decreased when estimated using state-of-the-art versions of the evaluated neutron data libraries, compared to previous releases of those libraries. The article also examines the changes in target accuracies for predicting the main neutronics characteristics of fast neutron reactors over the past decades, as well as evaluates the requirements for neutron data uncertainties to achieve the recently declared target accuracies. The main findings of this study are presented in two aspects: firstly, in terms of the effects evaluated neutron data from different libraries have on the accuracy of calculations for the primary neutronics characteristics of fast reactors; and secondly, in terms of the potential for improving the accuracy of predicted neutronics characteristics of fast reactors by considering the results of reactor physics measurements.

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evaluated neutron data uncertainties covariance matrices fast neutron reactor sensitivity coefficient uncertainty data assimilation

Link for citing the article: Andrianov A.A., Andrianova O.N., Kuptsov I.S., Uvarova A.A. Comparison of the Calculation Accuracy of the Neutronics Characteristics of a Heavy Liquid Metal Cooled Fast Reactor Model Using the Various Evaluated Neutron Data Libraries. Izvestiya vuzov. Yadernaya Energetika. 2024, no. 3, pp. 109-124; DOI: https://doi.org/10.26583/npe.2024.3.09 (in Russian).

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