Photon transport effect on intra-subassembly thermal power distribution in fast reactor

Abstract

In order to accurately predict intra-subassembly thermal power distribution in a fast reactor, neutron and photon transport calculations are carried out with a multi-purpose reactor physics calculation code system CBZ. All the fission fragment nuclide are treated explicitly during fuel depletion, and irradiation time-dependent energy spectra of delayed fission γ-rays emitted from all the fission fragment nuclides are precisely simulated. Time-dependent delayed β-ray emission and transmutations of fission fragment nuclide by neutron-nuclide reactions are also taken into account. A fuel subassembly model of Japanese prototype fast reactor Monju is used for numerical calculations, and their two-dimensional geometric feature is precisely modeled by a ray-tracing-based collision probability method implemented in CBZ. When the photon transport is considered, total thermal powers in fissile material regions are reduced by about 1.5% except at the beginning of fuel depletion.