A Consistent One-Dimensional Multigroup Diffusion Model for Molten Salt Reactor Neutronics Calculations

Abstract

Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs) have recently gained resurged research and development interest in the advanced reactor community. Several computational tools are being developed to capture the strong neutronics/thermal-hydraulics coupling effect in this special reactor configuration. This paper presents a consistent one-dimensional (1D) multigroup neutron diffusion model for MSR analysis, with the primary aim for fast and accurate calculations for long transients, as well as sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of the reactor. A fictitious radial leakage cross section is introduced in the model to properly account for the radial leakage effects of the reactor. The leakage cross section and other consistent neutronics parameters are generated with the Monte Carlo code Serpent using high-fidelity three-dimensional (3D) models. The accuracy of the 1D consistent model is verified by the reference solution from the Monte Carlo model on the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) configuration. The 1D consistent model successfully reproduced the integrated flux from the 3D model and the reactor multiplication factor keff with the error in the range of 95 to 397 pcm (per cent mille), depending on discretized energy group structures. The developed model is also extended to estimate the reactivity loss due to fuel circulation in MSRE. The estimate of reactivity loss in dynamics analysis is in great agreement with the experimental data. This model functions as the first step in the development of a 1D fully neutronics/thermal-hydraulics coupled model for short- and long-term MSRE transient analysis.

Keywords

• molten salt reactors
• neutronics
• benchmark
• reactor transients
• multigroup diffusion model