Abstract
The EBR-II benchmark, which was recently included in the International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments, served as a basis for assessing the performance of the SCALE code system for fast reactor analyses. A reference SCALE model was developed based on the benchmark specifications. Great agreement was observed between the eigenvalue calculated with this SCALE model and the benchmark eigenvalue. To identify potential gaps and uncertainties of nuclear data for the simulation of various quantities of interest in fast spectrum systems, sensitivity and uncertainty analyses were performed for the eigenvalue, reactivity effects, and the radial power profile of EBR-II using the two most recent ENDF/B nuclear data library releases. While the nominal results are consistent between the calculations with the different libraries, the uncertainties due to nuclear data vary significantly. The major driver of observed uncertainties is the uncertainty of the 235U (n,γ) reaction. Since the uncertainty of this reaction is significantly reduced in the ENDF/B-VIII.0 library compared to ENDF/B-VII.1, the obtained output uncertainties tend to be smaller in ENDF/B-VIII.0 calculations, although the decrease is partially compensated by increased uncertainties in 235U fission and ν¯.
Highlights
Sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs) are one of several promising advanced reactor concepts being considered for commercialization and have received renewed attention from industry and research institutions
This paper presents the computational analysis of the Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) based on the IRPhEP benchmark specifications using SCALE, a widely used computational tool set for criticality safety, reactor physics, shielding, and sensitivity and uncertainty analysis [11]
It is interesting to note that the initial plan was to investigate the Doppler reactivity of the EBR-II’s fuel, but only a small reactivity difference of less than 100 pcm was obtained, even when the fuel temperature increased from 616 to 1800 K
Summary
Sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs) are one of several promising advanced reactor concepts being considered for commercialization and have received renewed attention from industry and research institutions. At the time of this writing, only the EBR-II IRPhEP benchmark authors have published computational analyses based on the new IRPhEP benchmark specifications [1,6,7] While these analyses cover uncertainty and sensitivity analyses with respect to several modeling parameters such as geometric dimensions and material compositions, they do not cover an analysis of the impact of uncertainties in nuclear data on the calculated results. The benchmark’s authors performed extensive studies to assess the impact of uncertainties in various modeling parameters—such as material densities and geometric dimensions on the eigenvalue—to determine the benchmark eigenvalue uncertainty These studies did not include uncertainty resulting from nuclear data on the calculated eigenvalue. The analyses presented here go beyond the eigenvalue calculation to include reactivity coefficients and radial power distribution in an attempt to reveal additional relevant nuclear data impacting other operations and safety key metrics
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