On-the-fly energy release per fission model in STREAM with explicit neutron and photon heating

Abstract

The on-the-fly energy release per fission (OTFK) model is implemented in STREAM to continuously update the Kappa values during the depletion calculation. The explicit neutron and photon energy distribution, which has not been considered in previous STREAM versions, is incorporated into the existing on-the-fly model. The impacts of the modified OTFK model with explicit neutron and photon heating in STREAM on the power distribution, fuel temperature, and other core parameters during depletion with feedback calculations are studied using several problems from the VERA benchmark suit. Overall, the explicit heating calculation provides a better power map for the feedback calculations particularly when strong gamma emitters are present. Generally, the fuel temperature decreases when neutron and photon heating is employed because fission neutrons and gamma rays are transported away from their points of generation. This energy release model in STREAM indicates that gamma energy accounts for approximately 9.5%–10% of the total energy released, and approximately 2.4%–2.6% of the total energy released will be deposited in the coolant for the VERA 5, NuScale, and Yonggwang Unit 3 2D cores.