Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulic analysis of ANTS-100e using MCS/RAST-F two-step code system

  • Tung Dong Cao Nguyen (Department of Nuclear Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology) ;
  • Tuan Quoc Tran (Department of Nuclear Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology) ;
  • Deokjung Lee (Department of Nuclear Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology)
  • Received : 2023.05.05
  • Accepted : 2023.07.17
  • Published : 2023.11.25
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Abstract

The feasibility of using the Monte Carlo code MCS to generate multigroup cross sections for nodal diffusion simulations RAST-F of liquid metal fast reactors is investigated in this paper. The performance of the MCS/RAST-F code system is assessed using steady-state simulations of the ANTS-100e core. The results show good agreement between MCS/RAST-F and MCS reference solutions, with a keff difference of less than 77 pcm and root-mean-square differences in radial and axial power of less than 0.5% and 0.25%, respectively. Furthermore, the MCS/RAST-F reactivity feedback coefficients are within three standard deviations of the MCS coefficients. To validate the internal thermal-hydraulic (TH) feedback capability in RAST-F code, the coupled neutronic/TH1D simulation of ANTS-100e is performed using the case matrix obtained from MCS branch calculations. The results are compared to those obtained using the MARS-LBE system code and show good agreement with relative temperature differences in fuel and coolant of less than 0.8%. This study demonstrates that the MCS/RAST-F code system can produce accurate results for core steady-state neutronic calculations and for coupled neutronic/TH simulations.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was partially supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. NRF-2019M2D2A1A03058371). This work was partially supported by Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) grant funded by the Korea government (MOTIE) (RS-2023-00241302).

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