NEA Mandates and Structures


Working Party on Scientific Issues of Reactor Systems (WPRS)

Chair(s): Kostadin IVANOV, United States
Secretary:  Ian HILL
(ian.hill@oecd-nea.org)
Vice-Chair(s): Hakim FERROUKHI, Switzerland
Member(s):All NEA member countries*
Russia (Suspended*)
*Russian Federation suspended pursuant to a decision of the OECD Council.
Full participant(s): European Commission
Under the NEA Statute
Observer(s)(International Organisation): International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
By agreement
Date of creation:30 June 2004
End of mandate:30 June 2019

Mandate (Document reference):

  • Agreed at the 15th meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee in June 2004 [NEA/SEN/NSC(2004)3]
  • Extended at the 21st meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee in June 2010 [NEA/SEN/NSC(2010)3]
  • Revised at the 9th meeting of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of Reactor Systems in June 2012 [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPRS(2012)7]
  • Extended and revised at the 24th meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee in June 2013 [NEA/SEN/NSC(2013)2]
  • Extended and revised at the 27th meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee in June 2016 [NEA/SEN/NSC(2016)2]

Mandate (Document extract):

Extract from document [NEA/SEN/NSC(2016)2]

Scope

Under the guidance of the Nuclear Science Committee the Working Party will deal with reactor physics, radiation transport and dosimetry and fuel performance for present and future nuclear power systems. As such, it will study the modelling of reactor systems and the uncertainties associated with such analyses.

Objectives

  • To provide the Member Countries with up-to-date information to preserve knowledge on and develop consensus regarding reactor physics, thermal hydraulics, radiation transport and dosimetry, fuel behaviour and dynamics associated with nuclear power systems, aimed at providing technical underpinning of the assessment of system performance and safety.
  • To provide advice to the nuclear community on the developments needed to meet the requirements (data and methods, validation experiments, scenario studies) for the assessment of different reactor systems.
  • To provide information on the uncertainties in modelling of reactor system performance and safety, including multi-physics analyses.

Reactor physics aspects considered will include:

  • Reactivity characteristics.
  • Core power/flux distributions.
  • Core kinetics and reactivity control.
  • Fuel Inventories.
  • Reactivity coefficients.
  • Safety/system dynamics.

Radiation transport and dosimetry will cover aspects relevant to reactor vessels and internals, and irradiation facilities.

Reactor types considered include, but are not limited to the following:

  • Present generation LWRs with advanced and innovative fuels, evolutionary and innovative LWRs and HWRs.
  • Advanced reactor systems.
  • Accelerator driven (sub-critical) and critical systems for waste transmutation.

The Working Party will liaise closely with other relevant NEA working parties, especially those operating under the guidance of the NDC and CSNI, to ensure the respective work programmes are complementary and to provide advice and support where required and undertake common work where appropriate. Particularly close working relationships will be maintained with the NSC Working Party on Scientific Issues of Fuel Cycle (WPFC) and will be developed with the Working Party on Multi-scale Modelling of Fuels and Structural Materials for Nuclear Systems (WPMM) and other relevant NSC working parties.

Deliverables

  • Summary reports on current status of WPRS Experiments Databases IFPE, IRPhE and SINBAD, including priority ‘wish-list’ for future evaluations and review of possible requirements for database tools.
  • State-of-the-art Report on Natural Behaviour of Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor under Unprotected Transients as a Function of Fuel Nature and Core Size.
  • State-of-the-art Report on 3D Radiation Transport Codes and Methods.
  • PWR-MOX depletion benchmark report.
  • KALININ-3 Coolant Transient Benchmark Final Report.
  • Uncertainty Analysis in Modelling:
    • Phase I (core neutronics) Results.
    • Phase II (core thermal-hydraulics) Specification and Results.
    • Phase III (coupled system thermal hydraulics/core 3D kinetics) Specification and Results.
  • Oskarshamn-2 Reactor Stability Benchmark Final Report.
  • MHTGR-350 Benchmarks:
    • Phase I (steady state) Specification and Results.
    • Phase II (transient) Specification and Results.
    • Phase III (depletion) Specification and Results.
  • Report on experimental data requirements for fuel performance modelling.
  • Draft specification for Pellet-Clad Mechanical Interaction (PCMI) benchmark.
  • Final report on PCMI benchmark.
  • PBMR Coupled Neutronics/Thermal Hydraulics Transient Benchmark the PBMR-400 Core Design.
  • Proceedings of SATIF.
  • Draft IRPhE evaluations for VENUS-17 core.
  • Proposal for study of spectrum unfolding measurement techniques and analysis.
  • Specification for Deterministic Time-dependent Neutron Transport Benchmark C5-G7-TD without Spatial Homogenisation.
  • Specifications on SFR transient analysis benchmark.
  • Syntheses of the UAM-SFR Results and Recommendations for Completion of the BEPU Process.
  • Final report on the NUPEC BWR Full-size, Fine-mesh Bundle Tests (BFBT).