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Abstract. This paper compares contemporary and historical light water reactor shielding and pressure vessel dosimetry cross-section libraries for a pressurized water reactor calculational benchmark problem with a standard out-in core loading. The calculational benchmark problem was developed at Brookhaven National Laboratory by the request of the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and used the Oak Ridge National Laboratory two-dimensional discrete ordinates code DORT and the BUGLE-93 cross-section library for the calculations. In this paper, a Westinghouse three-dimensional discrete ordinates code with parallel processing, the RAPTOR-M3G code was used. A variety of cross section libraries were used with RAPTOR-M3G including the BUGLE-93, BUGLE-96, and BUGLE-B7 cross-section libraries developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the broad-group ALPAN-VII.0 cross-section library developed at Westinghouse. In comparing the calculation-to-calculation reaction rates using the BUGLE-93 cross-section library at the thermal shield, pressure vessel, and cavity capsules, for eleven dosimetry reaction rates, a maximum relative difference of 5% was observed, with the exception of 65 Cu(n,2n) in the pressure vessel capsule that had a 90% relative difference with respect to the reference results. It is thought that the 65 Cu(n,2n) reaction rate reported in the reference for the pressure vessel capsule is not correct. In considering the libraries developed after BUGLE-93, a maximum relative difference of 12% was observed in reaction rates, with respect to the reference results, for 237 Np(n,f) in the cavity capsule using BUGLE-B7.

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As plants apply for 80 year licensure (subsequent license renewal), the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (U.S. NRC) has queried the nuclear power plant industry to investigate the impact of neutron embrittlement (radiation effects) on the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) structural steel supports due to extended plant operation past 60 years. The radiation effects on RPV supports were previously investigated and resolved as part of Generic Safety Issue No. 15 (GSI-15) in NUREG-0933 Revision 3 [1], NUREG-1509 [2] (published in May 1996), and NUREG/CR-5320 [3] (published in January 1989) for design life (40 years) and for first license renewal (20 additional years). The conclusions in NUREG-0933, Revision 3 stated that there were no structural integrity concerns for the RPV support structural steels; even if all the supports were totally removed (i.e. broken), the piping has acceptable margin to carry the load of the vessel. Nevertheless, for plants applying for 80 year life licensure, the U.S. NRC has requested an evaluation to show structural integrity of the RPV supports by accounting for radiation embrittlement (radiation damage) for continued operation into the second license renewal period (i.e. 80 years). The RPV support designs in light water reactors are grouped into one of five categories or types of supports: (1) skirt; (2) long-column; (3) shield-tank; (4) short column; and (5) suspension. In this paper, two of these RPV support configurations (short column supports and neutron shield tank) will be investigated using fracture mechanics to evaluate the effect of radiation embrittlement of the structural steel supports for long term operations (i.e. 80 years). The technical evaluation of other support configurations will be provided in a separate technical publication at a future date.

Multigroup (i.e., broad-group) libraries play a significant role in the accuracy of transport calculations. There are several broad-group libraries available for particular applications. For example the 47-neutron (26 fast groups), 20-gamma-group BUGLE libraries are commonly used for light water reactor shielding and pressure vessel dosimetry problems. However, there is no publicly available methodology to construct group structures for a problem and objective of interest. Therefore, we have developed the Contributon and Point-wise Cross-Section Driven (CPXSD) methodology, which constructs effective fine- and broad-group structures. In this paper, we use the CPXSD methodology to construct broad-group structures for fast neutron dosimetry problems. It is demonstrated that the broad-group libraries generated from CPXSD constructed group structures, while only 14 groups (rather than 26 groups) in the fast energy range are in good agreement (∼1 %–2 %) with the fine-group library from which they were derived, in reaction rate calculations.