Author(s)

Xenofontos Thalia^1*, Panayiota Savva¹, Melpomeni Varvayanni¹, Jacques Maillard¹, Jorge Silva¹, Marc-Thierry Jaekel², Nicolas Catsaros¹

¹Institute of Nuclear and Radiological Sciences & Technology, Energy & Safety, National Centre for Scientific Research Demokritos, Aghia Paraskevi, Greece.
²Laboratoire de Physique de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure, CNRS, Paris, France.

Innovative nuclear reactor concepts such as the Accelerator Driven Systems (ADSs) have imposed extra requirements of simulation capabilities on the existing stochastic neutronics codes. The combination of an accelerator and a nuclear reactor in the ADS requires the simulation of both subsystems for an integrated system analysis. Therefore, a need arises for more advanced simulation tools, able to cover the broad neutron energy spectrum involved in these systems. ANET (Advanced Neutronics with Evolution and Thermal hydraulic feedback) is an under development stochastic code for simulating conventional and hybrid nuclear reactors. Successive testing applications performed throughout the ANET development have been utilized to verify and validate the new code capabilities. In this context, the ANET reliability in simulating the spallation reaction and the corresponding neutron yield as well as computing the multiplication factor of an operating ADS are here examined. More specifically, three cores of the Kyoto University Critical Assembly (KUCA) facility in Japan were analyzed focusing on the spallation neutron yield and the neutron multiplication factor. The ANET-produced results are compared with independent results obtained using the stochastic codes MCNP6.1 and MCNPX. Satisfactory agreement is found between the codes, confirming thus ANET’s capability to successfully estimate both the neutron yield of the spallation reaction and the k_eff of a realistic ADS.

Monte Carlo, Neutronics Analysis, Code Validation, Accelerator Driven Systems

Thalia, X. , Savva, P. , Varvayanni, M. , Maillard, J. , Silva, J. , Jaekel, M. and Catsaros, N. (2019) Qualification of the ANET Code for Spallation Neutron Yield and Core Criticality in the KUCA ADS. World Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 9, 174-181. doi: 10.4236/wjnst.2019.94013.