Validation of McCARD for VHTR core with HTTR Benchmark

Abstract

In this paper, high temperature engineering test reactor (HTTR) benchmark were analyzed using McCARD and the ability to analyze a very high temperature gas-cooled reactor (VHTR) core of McCARD was validated. The specification of HTTR core is described and it is suggested that the approximation method of geometry for modelling in computational code. The multiplication factor during the fuel loading (HTTR-FC), the control rod insertion depth for critical condition (HTTR-CR), and isothermal temperature coefficient (HTTR-TC) are estimated by McCARD using both ENDF/B-VII.0 and ENDF/B-VII.1 neutron cross section libraries. The maximum difference of multiplication factor between result of McCARD and experiment data of HTTR-FC and HTTR-CR is around 600pcm by using ENDF/B-VII.1 library. Although the discrepancy of isothermal temperature coefficient (ITC) from McCARD is different with the experiment data, it is similar with estimated ITC from Japan and France.