The SCALE KENO V.a Criticality Safety Course focuses on KENO V.a and the associated criticality analysis sequences in the CSAS5 control module. KENO V.a is a widely used 3-D multigroup Monte Carlo criticality safety code that has been in use for nearly 25 years. KENO V.a is a fast, easy-to-use code that allows users to build complex geometry models using basic geometrical bodies of cuboids, spheres, cylinders, hemispheres, and hemicylinders. KENO V.a includes 2-D color plotting capability and HTML output and is compatible with the SCALE Windows interfaces GeeWiz and KENO3D. GeeWiz provides a menu-driven interface to set up and run SCALE models. KENO3D is an interactive 3-D visualization tool for viewing SCALE geometry models.

SCALE KENO-VI Criticality Safety Course

The SCALE KENO-VI Criticality Safety Course focuses on KENO-VI and the associated criticality analysis sequence CSAS6. KENO-VI is a 3-D generalized geometry Monte Carlo code that can perform continuous energy (CE) or multigroup (MG) calculations using the latest ENDF/B-VII data in SCALE 6. It uses the SCALE Generalized Geometry Package (SGGP), which is the same geometry package used by the MAVRIC/Monaco radiation shielding sequence in SCALE. SGGP includes almost 20 geometric shapes and provides the following modeling features: intersecting geometry regions; hexagonal, rectangular, and dodecahedral arrays; rotation and truncation of bodies; and the use of an array boundary that intersects the array. KENO-VI includes 2-D color plotting capability and HTML output and is compatible with the SCALE Windows interfaces GeeWiz and KENO3D. GeeWiz provides a menu-driven interface to set up and run SCALE models. KENO3D is an interactive 3-D visualization tool for viewing SCALE geometry models.

KENO-VI can be used with MAVRIC/Monaco to perform an integrated criticality accident alarm system (CAAS) analysis. This 2½ day course is taught in conjunction with the SCALE MAVRIC/Monaco Radiation Shielding Course.

SCALE MAVRIC/Monaco Radiation Shielding Course

This 2-day course (taught in conjunction with KENO-VI) discusses and demonstrates the new shielding tools in SCALE 6. The MAVRIC (Monaco with Automated Variance Reduction using Importance Calculations) sequence provides 3-D automated variance reduction for deep-penetration problems. The basic functional module is Monaco – a fixed-source, 3-D, general geometry, multi-group, Monte Carlo code. Monaco uses the SCALE Standard Composition Library and the SCALE Generalized Geometry Package (SGGP), which is the same geometry used by the KENO-VI criticality safety code. MAVRIC sequence is based on the CADIS (Consistent Adjoint Driven Importance Sampling) methodology. For a given tally in a Monte Carlo calculation that the users wants to optimize, the CADIS method uses the result of an adjoint calculation from a 3-D deterministic code to create both an importance map for weight windows and a biased source distribution. MAVRIC is completely automated — from a single user input, it creates the cross sections (forward and adjoint), calculates the first collision source for the discrete ordinates, computes the adjoint fluxes, creates the importance map and biased source, and then executes Monaco. An extension to the CADIS method using both forward and adjoint discrete ordinates calculations (FW-CADIS) is included in MAVRIC so that multiple point tallies or mesh tallies over large areas can be optimized (calculated with roughly the same relative uncertainty). In this course, participants will run several MAVRIC exercise problems that demonstrate: a standard Monte Carlo calculation without variance reduction; a simple shielding problem using CADIS to optimize a single tally; and a mesh tally calculation of dose rates over a large volume, with nearly uniform relative uncertainty. The last exercise problem will use the new CAAS (criticality accident alarm system) modeling capability in SCALE – where a fission distribution calculated by KENO-VI is used as a source in a MAVRIC shielding calculation.

SCALE ORIGEN-ARP

This is a one-day hands-on class that covers the use of ORIGEN-ARP for depletion, decay, decay heat, and radiation source-terms calculations. The course features the use of the SCALE Windows GUIs: OrigenArp for Windows and the ORIGEN-S plotting utility PlotOPUS. The course is usually offered in conjunction with the SCALE TRITON training course.

SCALE STARBUCS Burnup Credit Course

The new STARBUCS automated calculation sequence in SCALE integrates fuel depletion analysis using ORIGEN-ARP with a 3-D KENO (version V.a or VI) Monte Carlo criticality calculation. Spent fuel compositions are calculated for each spatial region. STARBUCS includes options for the treatment of isotopic uncertainties (applying bias and/or uncertainty correction factors) and for axial and horizontal burnup profiles. Attendees must have attended a KENO course or be experienced KENO users.

SCALE TRITON - Multidimensional Transport and Depletion Course

The TRITON sequence in SCALE combines deterministic and Monte Carlo capabilities into a multipurpose transport analysis tool. TRITON can be used to perform cross-section processing for a two-dimensional NEWT transport calculation. NEWT is an arbitrary-geometry, discrete ordinates transport solver that can be used for eigenvalue calculation, critical buckling searches, forward and adjoint flux solutions, cross-section weighting, collapse, and homogenization, and can be used to generate few-group constants for lattice physics calculations. Coupled with ORIGEN-S via TRITON, NEWT is most often used in 2-D depletion calculations. Such calculations can be used to calculate isotopic concentrations as a function of burnup, decay heat, neutron and gamma, source terms, radiotoxicity and dose estimates. Used in lattice physics calculations, TRITON can be used to perform transport branch calculations at each depletion step, and to save lattice physics cross sections and other physics parameters for use in subsequent analysis. NEWT's arbitrary-geometry capability lends it to a wide variety of lattice analyses, including but not limited to PWR, BWR with control blades, VVER, and CANDU and ACR-700 designs. Experienced KENO-VI users will find that NEWT geometry input is based on that of KENO-VI, and exchanging (2-D)
models between the two codes is trivial. However, for some inherently three-dimensional configurations, the 2-D solution of NEWT is inadequate; in such cases, the alternative is to use TRITON with KENO V.a or KENO-VI as the transport solver, to accommodate 3-D depletion.

This course will teach attendees how to use NEWT for transport calculations, and the use of TRITON for depletion calculations. The course will also instruct users on the use of KENO in place of NEWT for Monte Carlo-based depletion; however, attendees must be familiar with KENO input, as this is not covered within this course.

SCALE TSUNAMI Sensitivity/Uncertainty for Criticality Safety Course

Sensitivity coefficients produced by the TSUNAMI sequences predict the relative changes in a system’s calculated k-eff value due to changes in the neutron cross-section data. TSUNAMI produces sensitivity data on a groupwise basis for each region defined in the system model. First-order perturbation theory is used to compute sensitivity coefficients from both cross-section and flux data. TSUNAMI folds the sensitivity data with cross-section covariance data to calculate the uncertainty in the calculated k-eff value due to tabulated uncertainties in the cross-section data. The applicability of benchmark experiments to the criticality validation of a given application can be assessed using S/U-based integral indices that can quantify system similarity. Attendees must have attended a KENO course or be experienced KENO users.

Return to SCALE Training