Methodology for Sensitivity Analysis of Homogenized Cross-Sections to Instantaneous and Historical Lattice Conditions with Application to AP1000 ® PWR Lattice

Dean Price, Thomas Folk, Matthew Duschenes, Krishna Garikipati and Brendan Kochunas
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Dean Price: Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Science, University of Michigan, 2355 Bonisteel Blvd., Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Thomas Folk: Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Science, University of Michigan, 2355 Bonisteel Blvd., Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Matthew Duschenes: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, 2350 Hayward Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Krishna Garikipati: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, 2350 Hayward Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Brendan Kochunas: Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Science, University of Michigan, 2355 Bonisteel Blvd., Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 12, 1-21

Abstract: In the two-step method for nuclear reactor simulation, lattice physics calculations are performed to compute homogenized cross-sections for a variety of burnups and lattice configurations. A nodal code is then used to perform full-core analysis using the pre-calculated homogenized cross-sections. One source of uncertainty introduced in this method is that the lattice configuration or depletion conditions typically do not match a pre-calculated one from the lattice physics simulations. Therefore, some interpolation model must be used to estimate the homogenized cross-sections in the nodal code. This current study provides a methodology for sensitivity analysis to quantify the impact of state variables on the homogenized cross-sections. This methodology also allows for analyses of the historical effect that the state variables have on homogenized cross-sections. An application of this methodology on a lattice for the Westinghouse AP1000 ® reactor is presented where coolant density, fuel temperature, soluble boron concentration, and control rod insertion are the state variables of interest. The effects of considering the instantaneous values of the state variables, historical values of the state variables, and burnup-averaged values of the state variables are analyzed. Using these methods, it was found that a linear model that only considers the instantaneous and burnup-averaged values of state variables can fail to capture some variations in the homogenized cross-sections.

Keywords: neutronics; MPACT; AP1000 ®; pressurized water reactor; sensitivity analysis; two-step method; homogenized cross-sections (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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