Benchmark on the KRITZ-2 LEU and MOX Critical Experiments

Final Report

ISBN : 92-64-02298-8
Adobe Acrobat PDF Document - on 2/16/23 at 11:54 AM
- Adobe Acrobat PDF Document on 12/20/19 at 2:35 PM

The plutonium produced during the operation of commercial nuclear power plants or that has become available from the dismantlement of nuclear weapons needs to be properly managed. One important contribution to the management process consists in validating the calculation methods and nuclear data used for the prediction of power in systems using mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel. A series of computational physics benchmarks and issues regarding multiple recycling in various MOX-fuelled systems have been studied and published by the NEA. This has led to improvements in the nuclear data libraries and calculation methods. Full validation requires comparing those findings with data from experiments. The experiment at the KRITZ research reactor in Sweden is being used for this purpose.

This report provides an analysis of the 12 sets of results supplied by 16 experts from 7 countries, together with the comparison against the KRITZ evaluated experimental data. The report concludes that the computer codes and cross-sections used by the participants, which are presently in widespread use, can adequately predict the multiplication factor and pin-power distributions of the MOX cores.

This report will be of particular interest to reactor physicists and designers as well as to nuclear power plant utilities.