Sensitivity to nuclear data of Es-Salam fuel assembly eigenvalue using TSUNAMI-3D/SCALE 6.2.3

Widad Titouche; Tahar Zidi

doi:10.57056/ajet.v8i2.117

Authors

Widad Titouche Nuclear Research Center of Birine, Birine, Algeria
Tahar Zidi Atomic Energy Commision, Algiers, Algeria

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.57056/ajet.v8i2.117

Keywords:

Sensitivity, Uncertainty, SCALE 6.2.3, KENO-VI, TSUNAMI-3D

Abstract

Currently, in the design and safety studies of nuclear reactor cores, great interest is given to sensitivity and uncertainty studies because of the deviations observed due to the values of the neutron cross sections, which are important in neutronic calculations. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the influence of neutron cross section uncertainties on the effective multiplication factor k_effand its sensitivity to nuclear data. This paper presents the obtained results of the sensitivity analysis performed for Es-Salam fuel assembly using SCALE 6.2.3 package. Similarity was found with the reference direct perturbation results for some nuclides but not for others. Furthermore, the study shows that differences between the TSUNAMI-3D and the direct perturbation results vary 1.9 % for 235U, 8% for 238U up to 53% for ²H for multigroup calculations and 11% for 235U, 2 % for 238U and 53.7% for ²H in case of continuous energies calculations. These differences for the ²H nuclide, were decreased with the spatial mesh technique implemented in TSUNAMI-3D.The sensitivity analysis applied in this study could be the reference for Es Salam reactor core analyses to estimate the nuclear data uncertainty contributions to key physical parameters such as reactivity coefficients.

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