Pool critical assembly pressure vessel facility benchmark

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This pool critical assembly (PCA) pressure vessel wall facility benchmark (PCA benchmark) is described and analyzed in this report. Analysis of the PCA benchmark can be used for partial fulfillment of the requirements for the qualification of the methodology for pressure vessel neutron fluence calculations, as required by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulatory guide DG-1053. Section 1 of this report describes the PCA benchmark and provides all data necessary for the benchmark analysis. The measured quantities, to be compared with the calculated values, are the equivalent fission fluxes. In Section 2 the analysis of the PCA benchmark is described. Calculations with the computer code DORT, based on the discrete-ordinates method, were performed for three ENDF/B-VI-based multigroup libraries: BUGLE-93, SAILOR-95, and BUGLE-96. An excellent agreement of the calculated (C) and measures (M) equivalent fission fluxes was obtained. The arithmetic average C/M for all the dosimeters (total of 31) was 0.93 {+-} 0.03 and 0.92 {+-} 0.03 for the SAILOR-95 and BUGLE-96 libraries, respectively. The average C/M ratio, obtained with the BUGLE-93 library, for the 28 measurements was 0.93 {+-} 0.03 (the neptunium measurements in the water and air regions were overpredicted and excluded from the average). No systematic decrease in the C/M ratios with increasing distance from the core was observed for any of the libraries used.