Abstract
This work discusses challenges and approaches to uncertainty analyses associated with the development of a nuclide inventory benchmark for fuel irradiated in a boiling water reactor. The benchmark under consideration is being developed based on experimental data from the SFCOMPO international database. The focus herein is on how to address missing data in fuel design and operating conditions that are important for adequately simulating the time-dependent changes in fuel during irradiation in the reactor. The effects of modeling assumptions and uncertainties in modeling parameters on the calculated nuclide inventory were analyzed and quantified through computational models developed using capabilities in the SCALE code system. Particular attention was given to the impact of the power history and water coolant density on the calculated nuclide inventory, as well as to the effect of geometry modeling considerations not usually addressed in a nuclide inventory benchmark. These considerations include gap closure, channel bow, and channel corner radius, which do not usually apply to regular reactor operation but are relevant for assessing impacts of potential anomalous operating scenarios.
Highlights
To validate the computational tools and associated nuclear data used for design and safety analyses of spent nuclear fuel transportation, storage, and repository systems, benchmarks must be developed that are based on experimental data for nuclide inventories.The world’s largest resource of publicly available experimental data of nuclide inventories in spent nuclear fuel is the SFCOMPO database [1], which is maintained by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)/Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA)
Challenges associated with assessing the impact of modeling assumptions and modeling parameter uncertainties on the predicted nuclide concentrations for high-burnup spent nuclear fuel irradiated in a boiling water reactor (BWR) are discussed in this work
Particular focus is placed on the impact of time-dependent parameters such as power history on C/E nuclide concentration ratios and on geometry modeling considerations not usually addressed in a nuclide inventory benchmark
Summary
To validate the computational tools and associated nuclear data used for design and safety analyses of spent nuclear fuel transportation, storage, and repository systems, benchmarks must be developed that are based on experimental data for nuclide inventories. The current focus of the SFCOMPO TRG is the critical evaluation of the existing experimental assay data [2] to develop benchmarks and benchmark models for use by the international community. Such an effort includes unique challenges [2,3] that are different from those associated with benchmarks developed and published by the NEA’s International Reactor. Benchmark Experiment Project (ICSBEP) [5] These distinctive challenges include the treatment of time-dependent operating data for accurately simulating the nuclear transmutation and decay processes in fuel during irradiation, as well as the assessment of associated uncertainties in modeling assumptions and in radiochemistry experiments. The effects of modeling assumptions and uncertainties in modeling parameters on the calculated nuclide inventory are analyzed and quantified through computational models developed using capabilities in the SCALE nuclear analysis code system [6]
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