PHASE-B PRE-SIMULATION USING BORON AND GADOLINIUM AS POISON IN THE MODERATOR SYSTEM FOR WOLSONG-1

Abstract

The Wolsong-1 (W-1) Phase-B pre-simulations were carried out in preparation for tests to be conducted for the restart of the reactor after a major refurbishment project that included replacement of the pressure tube. These pre-simulations for Wolsong-1 Phase-B differ from those in the past that were performed for the Wolsong-1,2,3,4 tests in that these tests use the WIMS/DRAGON/RFSP-IST code suite for verification of the tests and gadolinium instead of the traditional PPV/MULTICELL/RFSP code system and boron as poison in the moderator system. The use of gadolinium is deemed not to have domestically accumulated experience gained from the previous Phase-B tests. Thus, it is appropriate to conduct a study in order to gain a correct understanding and interpretation of potential differences in test results stemming from using gadolinium rather than boron. Although the calibration of the reactivity device will not be noticeably different using boron and gadolinium at a constant moderator temperature, the temperature dependency of the neutronic behavior due to the presence of gadolinium in the moderator system might be pronounced. The results of the pre-simulations using gadolinium revealed that the moderator temperature reactivity coefficients indeed showed significant differences in comparison with those with boron. In order to secure the validity of the analysis results, the newly acquired WIMS/DRAGON/RFSP-IST code suite was verified against the W-2,3,4 Phase-B test results. The results of the new code suite verifications revealed some overall improvements in accuracy; justification of the use of the code can be claimed for the validation of the W-1 Phase-B test results.