Investigations on Monte Carlo based coupled core calculations

Abstract

The present trend in advanced and next generation nuclear reactor core designs is towards increased material heterogeneity and geometry complexity. The continuous energy Monte Carlo method has the capability of modeling such core environments with high accuracy. This paper presents results from feasibility studies being performed at the Pennsylvania State University (PSU) on both accelerating Monte Carlo criticality calculations by using hybrid nodal diffusion Monte Carlo schemes and thermal-hydraulic feedback modeling in Monte Carlo core calculations. The computation process is greatly accelerated by calculating the three-dimensional (3D) distributions of fission source and thermal-hydraulics parameters with the coupled NEM/COBRA-TF code and then using coupled MCNP5/COBRA-TF code to fine tune the results to obtain an increased accuracy. The PSU NEM code employs cross-sections generated by MCNP5 for pin-cell based nodal compositions. The implementation of different code modifications facilitating coupled calculations are presented first. Then the coupled hybrid Monte Carlo based code system is applied to a 3D 2*2 pin array extracted from a Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) assembly with reflective radial boundary conditions. The obtained results are discussed and it is showed that performing Monte-Carlo based coupled core steady state calculations are feasible. (authors)