August 2018

Conference Paper

Watts Bar I Ex-Core Analyses using VERA

By:
Davidson, Eva E; Pandya, Tara M; Godfrey, Andrew T; Asgari, Mehdi
Journal Name:
Applied Radiation and Isotopes
Volume:
2018
Publication Date:
August 2018
Conference Name:
ANS RSPD 2018 - 20th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection & Shielding Division of ANS
Conference Location:
Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States of America
Conference Sponsor:
ANS

Abstract

The integration and direct coupling of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Shift Monte Carlo code within the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA) offers unique capabilities that combine high-fidelity in-core and ex-core radiation transport. In this recent development activity, the deterministic neutronics code MPACT performs the incore radiation transport with temperature feedback using COBRA-TF (CTF), and provides the fission source to Shift for a follow-on fixed source radiation transport calculation to determine ex-core quantities of interest. The coupling of MPACT to Shift allows the neutron source for the ex-core transport to be calculated from the time-dependent, fully coupled MPACT solution. This paper presents the first use of VERA to perform coupon irradiation for validation of its ex-core capabilities.