Deterministic neutron transport and burnup code coupling assessment

Abstract

Nuclide evolution is a key aspect in nuclear reactor design and operation. Burnup (or depletion) codes evaluate the isotopic inventory evolution. The inherent need for nuclear safety, the development in computational capabilities, and new discoveries in related areas, such as mathematical methods, result in constant software re-evaluation and improvement. Now, many stochastic-based burnup codes are being developed in comparison to deterministic-based ones, which also present advantages and interesting aspects. In this work, nuclear libraries, processing requirements, data workflow, and methodologies are studied for the development of a brand-new burnup code linked to the VALKIN-FVM-Sn deterministic transport code. As a result, the requirements to create, and couple, a burnup code have been assessed, establishing a methodology. The burnup code has been developed and contrasted with an industry reference. The resulting coupling is a lattice code foundation to be used in a Multiphysics platform.