Benchmark Analysis of a Prismatic Type-high Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor with the ENDF/B-VII.0, ENDF/B-VII.1 and ENDF/B-VIII.0 Nuclear Data Libraries
Main Article Content
Abstract
In this work we performed a benchmark analysis of the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) fully-loaded start-up critical core with a 30-bundle loading configuration using the Monte Carlo code Serpent 2 with the recently released nuclear data libraries ENDF/B-VII.0, ENDF/B-VII.1 and ENDF/B-VIII.0. The purpose of the work is to reveal the impacts of using different ENDF nuclear data libraries on neutronics calculations of a prismatic high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR). The benchmark results obtained with Serpent 2 were compared against the available experimental values and those attained by different computer codes (MCNP5 and SCALE) using the nuclear data library ENDF/B-VII.0. The comparative results showed good agreement between Serpent 2, the experimental values, MCNP5 and SCALE. The results also exhibited a notable difference between using ENDF/B-VII.0, ENDF/B-VII.1 and ENDF/B-VIII.0 in predicting the neutronics parameters of the HTTR that suggests further investigation in future work.
References
[2] S. Shiozawa, S. Fujikawa, T. Iyoku, K. Kunitomi, Y. Tachibana, Overview of HTTR Design Features, Nuclear Engineering and Design, Vol. 233, Iss. 1-3, 2004, pp. 11-21, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2004.07.016.
[3] Y. Fujiwara, M. Goto, K. Iigaki et al., Design of High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR), High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors, ISBN: 978-0-12-821031-4, Elsevier, 2021, pp. 17-178.
[4] M. B. Chadwick, P. Oblozinsky, M. Herman et al., ENDF/B-VII.0: Next Generation Evaluated Nuclear Data Library for Nuclear Science and Technology, Nuclear Data Sheets, Vol. 107, Iss. 12, 2006, pp. 2931-3060, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nds.2006.11.001.
[5] M. B. Chadwick, M. Herman, P. Oblozinsky et al., ENDF/B-VII.1 Nuclear Data for Science and Technology: Cross Sections, Covariances, Fission Product Yields and Decay Data, Nuclear Data Sheets, Vol. 112, Iss. 12, 2011, pp. 2887-2996, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nds.2011.11.002.
[6] D. A. Brown, M. B. Chadwick, R. Capote et al., ENDF/B-VIII.0: The 8th Major Release of the Nuclear Reaction Data Library with CIELO-project Cross Sections, New Standards and Thermal Scattering Data, Nuclear Data Sheets, Vol. 148, 2018, pp. 1-142, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nds.2018.02.001.
[7] J. Leppänen, M. Pusa, T. Viitanen, V. Valtavirta, T. Kaltiaisenaho, The Serpent Monte Carlo Code: Status, Development and Applications in 2013, Annals of Nuclear Energy, Vol. 82, 2015, pp. 142-150, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2014.08.024.
[8] Serpent Wiki, Resources for Users, http://serpent.vtt.fi/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page, 2024 (accessed on: April 1st, 2024).
[9] J. D. Bess, N. Fujimoto, B. H. Dolphin, L. Snoj, A. Zukeran, Evaluation of the Start-up Core Physics Tests at Japan’s High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (Fully-Loaded Core), INL/EXT-08-14767 Rev. 2, Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, Idaho, United States, 2010.
[10] G. Ilas, D. Ilas, R. P. Kelly, E. E. Sunny, Validation of SCALE for High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor Analysis, NUREG/CR-7107 (ORNL/TM-2011/161), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, United States, 2012.
[11] R. Bostelmann, A. M. Holcomb, W. B. Marshall, V. Sobes, B. T. Rearden, Impact of the ENDF/B-VIII.0 Library on Advanced Reactor Simulations, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, United States, 2019.
[12] F. Bostelmann, G. Ilas, W. A. Wieselquist, Key Nuclear Data Impacting Reactivity in Advanced Reactors, ORNL/TM-2020/1557, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, United States, 2020.