Calculation of the Neutron Source Distribution in the Venus PWR Mockup Experiment

Abstract

The VENUS PWR Mockup Experiment is an important component of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s program goal of benchmarking reactor pressure vessel (RPV) fluence calculations in order to determine the accuracy to which RPV fluence can be computed. Of particular concern in this experiment is the accuracy of the source calculation near the core-baffle interface, which is the important region for contributing to RPV fluence.Results indicate that the calculated neutron source distribution within the VENUS core agrees with the experimental measured values with an average error of less that 3%, except at the baffle corner, where the error is about 6%. Better agreement with the measured fission distribution was obtained with a detailed space-dependent cross-section weighting procedure for thermal cross sections near the core-baffle interface region. The maximum error introduced into the predicted RPV fluence due to source errors should be on the order of 5%.KeywordsReactor Pressure VesselNuclear Regulatory CommissionFission RateRadiation EmbrittlementThermal Cross SectionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.