Multi-physics DONJON5 reactor models for improved fuel cycle simulation with CLASS

Abstract

This work investigates reactor model biases and their consequences in nuclear scenario simulations. Usually, the models for Pressurized Water Reactors are based on infinite 2D assembly depletion simulations, but recent work has shown the importance of 3D complete core simulation for uncertainty reduction. The consideration of a whole core leads to new reactor parameters in the simulations that may bring additional biases. The fuel temperature distribution is one of them, and previous work considered isothermal reactors, leading to probable uncertainties in spent fuel inventory at reactor discharge. To quantify those biases and their propagation in a full scenario simulation, new advanced reactor models have been developed, based on neutronics and thermal-hydraulics couplings at the core level performed with DONJON5. Results show that the plutonium isotopic quality of spent fuel is biased for an isothermal core, with values systematically higher than for multi-physics calculations. In order to propagate those discrepancies in fuel cycle simulations that involve plutonium recycling in PWR MOX fuels, the coupling between CLASS and DONJON was renewed in order to add new fuel parameters such as the fuel temperature in the core burn-up simulation. A new methodology for data interpolation from lattice calculation has been implemented that allows acceptable computational time for DONJON5 calculations that are done within the fuel cycle simulation performed by CLASS. Comparison between isothermal and multi-physics reactor models for advanced scenario simulations performed with CLASS shows that the isothermal hypothesis leads to biases up to 10% for plutonium inventory in the UOX spent fuel stockpile, comparable with biases associated with other reactor parameters such as the loading pattern.