Verification of OpenMC for fast reactor physics analysis with China experimental fast reactor start-up tests

Abstract

High-fidelity nuclear data libraries and neutronics simulation tools are essential for the development of fast reactors. The IAEA coordinated research project on “Neutronics Benchmark of CEFR Start-Up Tests” offers valuable data for the qualification of nuclear data libraries and neutronics codes. This paper focuses on the verification and validation of the CEFR start-up modelling using OpenMC Monte-Carlo code against the experimental measurements. The OpenMC simulation results agree well with the measurements in criticality, control rod worth, sodium void reactivity, temperature reactivity, subassembly swap reactivity, and reaction distribution. In feedback coefficient evaluations, an additional state method shows high consistency with lower uncertainty. Among 122 relative errors in the benchmark of the distribution of nuclear reaction, 104 errors are less than 10% and 84 errors are less than 5%. The results demonstrate the high reliability of OpenMC for its application in fast reactor simulations. In the companion paper, the influence of cross-section libraries is investigated using neutronics modelling in this paper.

Keywords

• Neutronics
• CEFR
• Start-up tests
• Benchmark
• OpenMC
• VVUQ