Simulation Strategy for the Evaluation of Neutronic Properties of a Canadian SCWR Fuel Channel

Abstract

The Canadian Supercritical-Water-Cooled Reactor (SCWR) is a vertical pressure tube reactor cooled with supercritical light water and moderated with heavy water. For normal operation, the local conditions of the coolant (density and temperature) and fuel (temperature) vary substantially along the channel. This means that to simulate adequately the behavior of the core under operating conditions or for anticipated accident scenario, expensive 3D transport calculations for a complete fuel channel are required. Here, we propose a simulation strategy that takes into account axial variations of the local conditions and avoids 3D transport calculations. This strategy consists in replacing the 3D simulation by a series of isolated 2D calculations followed by a single 1D simulation. It is shown that this strategy is efficient because the axial coupling along the fuel channel is relatively weak. In addition, the neutronic properties of a channel with axial reflector can be modeled using a simplified 3D transport calculation.