Influence of nuclear data parameters on integral experiment assimilation using Cook’s distance

Abstract

Nuclear data used in designing of various nuclear applications (e.g., core design of reactors) is improved by using integral experiments. To utilize the past critical experimental data to the reactor design work, a typical procedure for the nuclear data adjustment is based on the Bayesian theory (least-square technique or Monte-Carlo). In this method, the nuclear data parameters are optimized by the inclusion of the experimental information using a Bayesian inference. The selection of integral experiments is based on the availability of well-documented specifications and experimental data. Data points with large uncertainties or large residuals (outliers) may affect the accuracy of the adjustment. Hence, in the adjustment process, it is very important to study the influence of experiments as well as of the prior nuclear data on the adjusted results. In this work, the influence of each individual reaction (related to nuclear data) is analyzed using the concept of Cook’s distance. First, JEZEBEL (Pu239, Pu240 and Pu241) integral experiment is considered for data assimilation and then the transposition of results on ASTRID fast reactor concept is discussed.