Comparative study on neutronics characteristics of a 1500 MWe metal fuel sodium-cooled fast reactor

Abstract

Under the cooperative effort of the Civil Nuclear Energy R&D Working Group within the framework of the U.S.-Japan bilateral, Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) have been performing benchmark study using the Japan Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (JSFR) design with metal fuel. In this benchmark study, core characteristic parameters at the beginning of cycle were evaluated by the best estimate deterministic and stochastic methodologies of ANL and JAEA. The results obtained by both institutions show a good agreement with less than 200 pcm of discrepancy in the neutron multiplication factor, and less than 3% of discrepancy in the sodium void reactivity, Doppler reactivity, and control rod worth. The results by the stochastic and deterministic approaches were compared in each party to investigate impacts of the deterministic approximation and to understand potential variations in the results due to different calculation methodologies employed. From the detailed analysis of methodologies, it was found that the good agreement in the multiplication factor from the deterministic calculations comes from the cancellation of the differences in the methodology (0.4%) and nuclear data (0.6%). The different treatment in reflector cross section generation was estimated as the major cause of the discrepancy between the multiplication factors by the JAEA and ANL deterministic methodologies. Impacts of the nuclear data libraries were also investigated using a sensitivity analysis methodology. The differences in the inelastic scattering cross sections of U-238, ν values and fission cross sections of Pu-239 and μ-average of Na-23 are the major contributors to the difference in the multiplication factors.