Analysis and Improvement of Global-Local Self-Shielding Calculation Scheme for AIC Control Rods

Abstract

Global-local self-shielding calculation scheme is a new high-fidelity resonance calculation model proposed by NECP laboratory of Xi'an Jiaotong University. Neutron Current Method (NCM) is utilized for resonance calculation in the global aspect to obtain Dancoff factors. Then each fuel pin is transformed into individual 1D cylindrical problems by conserving Dancoff factors. The Pseudo-Resonant-Nuclide Subgroup Method (PRNSM) is used to conduct resonance calculation in the local aspect for each 1D cylindrical pin. Global-local self-shielding calculation scheme has been successfully implemented in high-fidelity numerical nuclear reactor physics code NECP-X. Verification results of global-local self-shielding calculation scheme showed good accuracy for UO2 fuels. The maximum relative error of microscopic absorption cross sections (XSs) for 238U in resonance range was 1.5% compared with MCNP5 [1]. AIC control rods serve as strong absorbers in reactor. Strong self-shielding phenomenon occurs when AIC control rods are inserted. Analysis was performed to determine the effects of AIC control rods on the accuracy of global-local self-shielding calculation scheme and the sources of error. Evaluation results showed that the main part of error was introduced by NCM and radius searching. The relative errors were larger than 10% in several resonance groups. Therefore, a supercell model is proposed to couple with global-local self-shielding calculation scheme to treat resonance calculation for AIC control rods in this paper. Numerical results show that this model improves the accuracy of the global-local self-shielding calculation scheme. The relative errors of microscopic absorption XSs for AIC in most resonance groups were decreased to less than 2%.