Fast Reactors and Accelerator Driven Systems Knowledge Base

Conference Article: Neutronic description of accelerator driven systems: coupling of MC high energy particles interaction and SN low energy neutron codes as applied to Myrrha

Abstract

The Myrrha project [ 1] at SCK-CEN, the Belgian nuclear research centre, intends to design and develop a prototype accelerator driven system. Such a system will enable, next to other application fields (technological demonstration, integral experiments validation, . ..). the benchmarking of the codes applied to assess the performances of the ADS. In the present situation we coupled, at SCK-CEN, the high energy Monte Carlo code HETC to the DORT/TORT Sn neutron transport codes to perform the neutronic alculations of the Myrrha project. The HETC code is used to compute the space and energy distribution of the primary spallation neutron source, also including all other particles involved. The high energy cascade is calculated down to 20 MeV neutrons. Whereas the neutrons below this energy limit are stored as primary particles (without any interaction in the spallation medium) in a multigroup energy structure and will be treated as a fixed neutron source in the SN transport code. The neutron interaction cross-section library used in this step is based on the ENDF/B-IV nuclear data. It is a 27 energy group with 7 groups below the thermal cut-off and allowing the up-scattering and the anisotropic scattering up to P3. The neutron transport calculations of the sub-critical assembly are performed using the DORT code either in Keff or fixed source with multiplication modes. Quadrature sets of S8 and S16 were used during these calculations. This calculational scheme was validated on basis of Monte Carlo calculational results and experimental data. In this paper we present the global calculational scheme as we applied it to Myrrha and the corresponding results.

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Reference:

Technical Committee Meeting, Madrid, Spain 17-19 September 1997

International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)

IAEA-TC--903.3, pp:449-455