Code Development and Engineering Validation of PWR Fuel Management Software Bamboo-C

Abstract

Based on the conventional “two-step” scheme for the PWR fuel management, an advanced PWR fuel management software Bamboo-C has been developed by the most advanced methodologies in the reactor-physics field. Bamboo-C consists of three main functional codes: LOCUST code for the heterogeneous modeling and simulation and homogenization calculation of 2D assemblies; SPARK code for 3D core steady-state and transient analysis; and LtoS code for assembly homogenization parameter function, which links LOCUST and SPARK. Bamboo-C has all the necessary analysis functions for the fuel management and nuclear design of PWRs, mainly including the start-up physics tests, calculations of the neutron-kinetics parameters, differential and integral worth of rod cluster control assemblies (RCCAs), and power-operation following simulation. Finally, the engineering validations of Bamboo-C have been completed according to the operation data from the reactors CNP300, CNP650 and CNP1000 designed by China independently. The validation results show that the errors between the values of such key parameters of cores as critical boron concentration, temperature coefficient, RCCA worth, and power distributions, calculated by Bamboo-C, and their measured values satisfy the corresponding engineering criterion limits.