Resonance Self-shielding Method Using Resonance Interference Factor Library for Practical Lattice Physics Computations of LWRs

Abstract

This paper presents a new method of resonance interference effect treatment using resonance interference factor for high fidelity analysis of light water reactors (LWRs). Although there have been significant improvements in the lattice physics calculations over the several decades, there exist still relatively large errors in the resonance interference treatment, in the order of ∼300 pcm in the reactivity prediction of LWRs. In the newly developed method, the impact of resonance interference to the multi-group cross-sections has been quantified and tabulated in a library which can be used in lattice physics calculation as adjustment factors of multi-group cross-sections. The verification of the new method has been performed with Mosteller benchmark, UO2 and MOX pin-cell depletion problems, and a 17 × 17 fuel assembly loaded with gadolinia burnable poison, and significant improvements were demonstrated in the accuracy of reactivity and pin power predictions, with reactivity errors down to the order of ∼100 pcm.