Nuclear reactor physics | EPFL Graph Search

Nuclear reactor physics is the field of physics that studies and deals with the applied study and engineering applications of chain reaction to induce a controlled rate of fission in a nuclear reactor for the production of energy. Most nuclear reactors use a chain reaction to induce a controlled rate of nuclear fission in fissile material, releasing both energy and free neutrons. A reactor consists of an assembly of nuclear fuel (a reactor core), usually surrounded by a neutron moderator such as regular water, heavy water, graphite, or zirconium hydride, and fitted with mechanisms such as control rods which control the rate of the reaction. The physics of nuclear fission has several quirks that affect the design and behavior of nuclear reactors. This article presents a general overview of the physics of nuclear reactors and their behavior. Criticality In a nuclear reactor, the neutron population at any instant is a function of the rate of neutron production (due to f

Development and Application of Data Assimilation Methods in Reactor Physics

Daniel Jerôme Siefman

Simulations of nuclear reactor physics can disagree significantly from experimental evidence, even when the most accurate models are used. An important part of this bias from experiment is caused by nuclear data. The nuclear data have inherent uncertainties due to the way they are evaluated, which then propagate to nuclear reactor simulations. This creates a bias and an uncertainty in a predicted reactor parameter like \keff~or the composition of spent fuel. This thesis focuses on data assimilation techniques to ameliorate the effects of nuclear data. Data assimilation takes integral experiments and assimilates them in a Bayesian way to improve simulations. It can also be used to find trends and areas needing improvement in evaluated nuclear data. The research focuses on advancing the data assimilation theory and knowledge used in reactor physics, especially on techniques that require stochastic sampling of the nuclear data. Furthermore, the research takes advantage of rich experimental data available from the Proteus research reactor at the Paul Scherrer Institute. The thesis showed, for the first time, that two methods based on stochastic sampling (called MOCABA and BMC) gave equivalent results to each other and to the traditional method called GLLS. This was corroborated with two independent studies that used different experiments, neutron transport codes, nuclear data, and processing codes. The first study used the JEZEBEL-Pu239 benchmark, the Serpent2 neutron transport code, and NUSS. The second study used reactivity experiments from the LWR-Phase II experiments at Proteus, CASMO-5 for neutron transport, and SHARK-X. While using Serpent2, several questions pertaining to the stochastic uncertainty of its sensitivity coefficients arose. To address these, a new method called eXtended GLLS, or xGLLS, was proposed and tested in the thesis. xGLLS showed that the uncertainties associated with sensitivity coefficients have a negligible effect on the data assimilation as long as the calculated integral parameters themselves were converged. The final study focused on adjusting the fission yields and covariances made by the GEF code with post-irradiation examination experiments from Proteus. The adjustment improved the accuracy of predicted nuclide concentrations in spent fuel and improved the agreement between the GEF fission yields and those of ENDF/B-VIII.0 and JEFF3.3.

EPFL2019

Full Core modeling techniques for research reactors with irregular geometries using Serpent and PARCS applied to the CROCUS reactor

Gaëtan Girardin, Mathieu Hursin, Andreas Pautz, Adolfo Rais, Daniel Jerôme Siefman

This paper summarizes the results of modeling methodologies developed for the zero-power (100 W) teaching and research reactor CROCUS located in the Laboratory for Reactor Physics and Systems Behavior (LRS) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). The study gives evidence that the Monte Carlo code Serpent can be used effectively as a lattice physics tool for small reactors. CROCUS' core has an irregular geometry with two fuel zones of different lattice pitches. This and the reactor's small size necessitate the use of nonstandard cross-section homogenization techniques when modeling the full core with a 3D nodal diffusion code (e.g. PARCS). The primary goal of this work is the development of these techniques for steady-state neutronics and future transient neutronics analyses of not only CROCUS, but research reactors in general. In addition, the modeling methods can provide useful insight for analyzing small modular reactor concepts based on light water technology. Static computational models of CROCUS with the codes Serpent and MCNP5 are presented and methodologies are analyzed for using Serpent and SerpentXS to prepare macroscopic homogenized group cross-sections for a pin-by-pin model of CROCUS with PARCS. The most accurate homogenization scheme lead to a difference in terms of k eff of 385 pcm between the Serpent and PARCS model, while the MCNP5 and Serpent models differed in terms of k eff by 13 pcm (within the statistical error of each simulation). Comparisons of the axial power profiles between the Serpent model as a reference and a set of PARCS models using different homogenization techniques showed a consistent root-mean-square deviation of $8%, indicating that the differences are not due to the homogenization technique but rather arise from the definition of the diffusion coefficients produced by Serpent. A comparison of the radial power profiles between the best PARCS model and full-core Serpent model showed largest relative differences in terms of power prediction at the core periphery, which is believed to be the product of the geometry simplifications made, the diffusion coefficients produced by Serpent, and the two-group energy structure used. The worth of a single control rod reproduced in PARCS showed a difference of À33 pcm from its 169 pcm worth simulated in Serpent.

2015

VERIFICATION OF A REACTOR PHYSICS CALCULATION SCHEME FOR THE CROCUS REACTOR

Gaëtan Girardin, Mathieu Hursin, Andreas Pautz, Adolfo Rais, Daniel Jerôme Siefman

CROCUS is a zero power (100 W) reactor of the Laboratory for Reactor Physics and Systems Behavior (LRS) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL). It is used for teaching and research purposes. Its modeling has relied so far on diffusion theory and point kinetics for the neutronic analysis and simplified thermal hydraulics models for accident analysis. Recently, an effort has started within the LRS to improve its modeling capabilities, the long term goal being to update the CROCUS Safety Analysis Report (SAR) for improved operational flexibility. The present work is focused on the static neutron analysis of CROCUS through the development and preliminary verification of a 3D nodal simulator (e.g. PARCS) model of the reactor, a methodology typically used in the industry for modeling of Light Water Reactors (LWR). The set of homogenized macroscopic cross-sections needed by the core simulator, referred in this work as nuclear data library, is generated by a Monte Carlo based code (e.g. Serpent). The quantities of interest for the verification of the model are the keff, and the control rod worths. An innovative homogenization approach to generate the nuclear data library is considered due to the irregular radial geometry of the CROCUS reactor. The reference solution is provided by another Monte Carlo code, MCNP5. The uncertainty due to the nuclear data in the keff prediction of Serpent is also investigated and amounts to about 500pcm which covers the deviation from unity of keff prediction by MCNP5 and Serpent for a critical CROCUS configuration. PARCS keff predictions are within 400 pcm of the Serpent results.

2014

Full Core modeling techniques for research reactors with irregular geometries using Serpent and PARCS applied to the CROCUS reactor

Gaëtan Girardin, Mathieu Hursin, Andreas Pautz, Adolfo Rais, Daniel Jerôme Siefman

2015

Development and Application of Data Assimilation Methods in Reactor Physics

Daniel Jerôme Siefman

EPFL2019