Abstract
Innovative nuclear reactor concepts such as the Accelerator Driven Systems (ADSs) have imposed extra requirements of simulation capabilities on the existing stochastic neutronics codes. The combination of an accelerator and a nuclear reactor in the ADS requires the simulation of both subsystems for an integrated system analysis. Therefore, a need arises for more advanced simulation tools, able to cover the broad neutron energy spectrum involved in these systems. ANET (Advanced Neutronics with Evolution and Thermal hydraulic feedback) is an under development stochastic code for simulating conventional and hybrid nuclear reactors. Successive testing applications performed throughout the ANET development have been utilized to verify and validate the new code capabilities. In this context, the ANET reliability in simulating the spallation reaction and the corresponding neutron yield as well as computing the multiplication factor of an operating ADS are here examined. More specifically, three cores of the Kyoto University Critical Assembly (KUCA) facility in Japan were analyzed focusing on the spallation neutron yield and the neutron multiplication factor. The ANET-produced results are compared with independent results obtained using the stochastic codes MCNP6.1 and MCNPX. Satisfactory agreement is found between the codes, confirming thus ANET’s capability to successfully estimate both the neutron yield of the spallation reaction and the keff of a realistic ADS.
Highlights
The Monte Carlo (MC) approach for reactor core analysis has steadily gained ground over the past decades due to the increased complexity of the reactor fuel and core configurations
Three core configurations of the Kyoto University Critical Assembly (KUCA) system were fully modelled by ANET in order to perform criticality tests in an operating Accelerator Driven Systems (ADSs)
FLUKA was employed as a high energy physics simulator in ANET to perform the spallation simulation and compute the neutron yield while the keff was computed by utilizing exclusively the relevant procedures for the standard stochastic estimators incorporated in ANET
Summary
The Monte Carlo (MC) approach for reactor core analysis has steadily gained ground over the past decades due to the increased complexity of the reactor fuel and core configurations. The ADS simulation should comprise two combined parts, i.e. the one concerning the beam of deuterons or protons produced by an accelerator inducing the spallation reaction and the other concerning the nuclear reactor core. It arises that a code which can inherently deal with both ADS subsystems, i.e. a code comprising a high energy physics module and a neutronics component, would be required. ANET code is continuously developing targeting at an enhanced MC code which will be capable of performing core isotopic evolution calculations for conventional and innovative reactors, being at the same time prepared to be coupled with thermal-hydraulic solvers.
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