Sfcompo Database of Spent Nuclear Fuel Assay Data – The Next Frontier

Abstract

SFCOMPO is the world’s largest database for measured spent nuclear fuel assay data. An international effort coordinated by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) resulted in a significant expansion of the database and its release online in 2017 as a downloadable application. The SFCOMPO Technical Review Group (TRG) was recently formed under the direction of NEA’s Nuclear Science Committee/Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety and was mandated to maintain and further coordinate the development of SFCOMPO. This TRG is currently focused on (1) critical evaluation of the experimental assay data by independent experts and (2) development of benchmarks and benchmark models that can be applied to validate burnup codes. This will improve the quality and documentation of the experimental datasets and enable their use by the international community to support code validation for design and safety analysis of spent nuclear fuel transportation, storage, and repository applications. It follows the precedent and draws on the experience gained from similar NEA efforts in the International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project and the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiment Project. Ongoing SFCOMPO evaluations have served as a test bed to develop templates for documenting evaluations, develop review guidance, improve approaches for a global uncertainty analysis, and devise a strategy focused on providing practical information of highest value to the user community. The current effort, status, and associated challenges are discussed.

On the estimation of nuclide inventory and decay heat: a review from the EURAD European project

“…An important activity is the compilation and analysis efforts within the Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety (WPNCS) of isotopic compositions from SNF within the SFCOMPO database and its technical review group of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) [8,11]. The present work would not have been possible without this international database, especially the results presented in Figure 4.…”

Engagement opportunities in OECD NEA benchmark development

“…Evaluation of data for developing benchmarks is the current focus (Ilas, et al, 2020) of the TRG. Since 2019, two evaluations have been approved for release and are pending publication ("Evaluation of Three Mile Island Unit 1 Fuel Samples-Assemblies NJ05YU and NJ070G (Type 15 × 15)" by Georgeta Radulescu, and "Evaluation of Fukushima-Daini-1 Samples-Assemblies 2F1ZN2 and 2F1ZN3 (Type 9×9-9)" by Ugur Mertyurek).…”

Nuclide Inventory Benchmark for BWR Spent Nuclear Fuel: Challenges in Evaluation of Modeling Data Assumptions and Uncertainties

“…The current focus of the SFCOMPO TRG is the critical evaluation of the existing experimental assay data [2] to develop benchmarks and benchmark models for use by the international community. Such an effort includes unique challenges [2,3] that are different from those associated with benchmarks developed and published by the NEA's International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project (IRPhEP) [4] and International Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiment Project (ICSBEP) [5]. These distinctive challenges include the treatment of time-dependent operating data for accurately simulating the nuclear transmutation and decay processes in fuel during irradiation, as well as the assessment of associated uncertainties in modeling assumptions and in radiochemistry experiments.…”

“…These distinctive challenges include the treatment of time-dependent operating data for accurately simulating the nuclear transmutation and decay processes in fuel during irradiation, as well as the assessment of associated uncertainties in modeling assumptions and in radiochemistry experiments. Currently, there are no SFCOMPO evaluated benchmark reports that have been publicly distributed by OECD/NEA [3].…”

“…Reported measured burnup that was estimated via 148 Nd content and accounting for 147 Nd and 148 Nd absorption[7,9].2 Average of (C/E-1) (%) over the five samples 3. Standard deviation of (C/E-1) (%) over the five samples.4 Maximum of the reported experimental uncertainties for these five samples[7].…”