A key issue facing the nuclear industry is the management of spent nuclear fuel. Validation of the computational methods and data used to support these activities is an essential step for their acceptance in safety-related studies. Demonstrated performance in the accurate prediction of spent fuel isotopic concentrations and decay heat is a cornerstone of the validation process.
Technical Approach
Under collaborations and partnerships with international organizations and through domestic experimental programs, measurement data for commercial nuclear fuel assemblies have been acquired and applied to the validation of the SCALE code system. SCALE has been validated using experimental data from destructive isotopic measurements of more than 200 spent fuel samples and calorimeter measurements for more than 150 assemblies. The data has been further expanded by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)/Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Expert Group on Assay Data for Spent Nuclear Fuel (chaired by ORNL) in the new database, SFCOMPO 2.0, to include destructive assay measurements for more than 720 samples, eight reactor designs, and 90 isotopes (http://www.oecd-nea.org/sfcompo/).
Benefit
These experimental data provide essential information for validating nuclear modeling and simulation codes, including SCALE, which are used by the US nuclear industry, the US Department of Energy (DOE), and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for design, safety analysis, and licensing review. Leveraging international experimental activities provides significant benefit through cost sharing and increased access to data. Through international collaborations, SFCOMPO 2.0 is today the largest open source of measured isotopic assay data for commercial reactor designs.
Sponsor
DOE Office of Nuclear Energy
DOE Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Partners
OECD/NEA Nuclear Science Committee and international organizations engaged in the Expert Group on Assay Data for Spent Nuclear Fuel
Principal Investigator
Ian Gauld
