Uncertainty Analysis of Light Water Reactor Fuel Lattices

Abstract

The study explored the calculation of uncertainty based on available cross-section covariance data and computational tool on fuel lattice levels, which included pin cell and the fuel assembly models. Uncertainty variations due to temperatures changes and different fuel compositions are the main focus of this analysis. Selected assemblies and unit pin cells were analyzed according to the OECD LWR UAM benchmark specifications. Criticality and uncertainty analysis were performed using TSUNAMI-2D sequence in SCALE 6.1. It was found that uncertainties increase with increasing temperature, whilekinfdecreases. This increase in the uncertainty is due to the increase in sensitivity of the largest contributing reaction of uncertainty, namely, the neutron capture reaction238U(n,γ) due to the Doppler broadening. In addition, three types (UOX, MOX, and UOX-Gd2O3) of fuel material compositions were analyzed. A remarkable increase in uncertainty inkinfwas observed for the case of MOX fuel. The increase in uncertainty ofkinfin MOX fuel was nearly twice the corresponding value in UOX fuel. The neutron-nuclide reaction of238U, mainly inelastic scattering (n,n′), contributed the most to the uncertainties in the MOX fuel, shifting the neutron spectrum to higher energy compared to the UOX fuel.

Uncertainty Analysis of Method-Based Operating Event Groups Ranking

“…Considering the central importance of RI weights and expert judgement impact, they are selected as primary uncertainty input to the assessment. The upper described ranking approach is far from the complexity of some deterministic models (e.g., [7]) and the parameters uncertainty consideration is less challenging.…”

New Monte Carlo-based method to evaluate fission fraction uncertainties for the reactor antineutrino experiment

“…Macroscopic fission cross section uncertainty analysis were studied using TSUNAMI-2D sequence in SCALE6.1. It was found that the fission cross section uncertainty of PWR is less than 0.36% [7]. However, the statical uncertainty of the one group average cross section of each isotopes is less than 0.1% when doing the simulation using RMC.…”