Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Multigroup cross section”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 73 records · Page 4

Griffin: A MOOSE-based reactor physics application for multiphysics simulation of advanced nuclear reactors

Griffin is a Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) based reactor physics application for multiphysics simulations of advanced reactor designs jointly developed by Idaho National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory. This paper summarizes the motivation, significance, architecture, design, and features of Griffin. Griffin offers flexible and extensible features to address the challenges associated with advanced reactor designs. These features range from fundamental particle transport to specific reactor physics tasks. The features cover a wide range including on-the-fly and traditional two-step cross-section generation methods, steady-state and transient transport solvers suitable for both heterogeneous and homogeneous models, high-fidelity depletion where thousands of isotopes can be tracked and low-fidelity depletion characterized by burnup, etc. The most fundamental aspect that sets Griffin apart from other reactor analysis codes is that it is developed based on the MOOSE framework. A modular development approach is strongly enforced, with multiphysics being an essential element considered since the beginning of Griffin’s development. Griffin links various MOOSE physics modules and couples to other MOOSE-based applications and non-MOOSE-based applications for multiphyiscs simulations. Griffin includes three modules: ISOXML for preparing and managing multigroup cross sections, radiation transport for solving the neutron transport equation, and reactor analysis for user-oriented reactor physics analysis functionalities. Griffin uses various finite element methods for spatial discretization, multigroup approximation for energy discretization and discrete ordinates method, spherical harmonics expansion method, and diffusion approximation for streaming direction discretization to solve the neutron transport equation. Griffin’s flexibility is evidenced through Griffin’s various applications to fast reactor, high-temperature reactor, pebble bed reactor, molten salt reactor, and microreactor designs. Griffin development follows the software quality assurance procedure for MOOSE-based applications and with software requirements consistent with the ASME NQA-1 standard. Griffin has been adopted into the reactor analysis system for the U.S. NRC and is in use at U.S. companies, universities and national laboratories.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Year End Progress Report on Rattlesnake Improvements

Rattlesnake is a MOOSE-based radiation transport application developed at INL to support modern multi-physics simulations. At the beginning of the last year, Rattlesnake was able to perform steady-state, transient and eigenvalue calculations for the multigroup radiation transport equations. Various discretization schemes, including continuous finite element method (FEM) with discrete ordinates method (SN) and spherical harmonics expansion method (PN) for the self-adjoint angular flux (SAAF) formulation, continuous FEM (CFEM) with SN for the least square (LS) formulation, diffusion approximation with CFEM and discontinuous FEM (DFEM), have been implemented. A separate toolkit, YAKXS, for multigroup cross section management was developed to support Rattlesnake calculations with feedback both from changes in the field variables, such as fuel temperature, coolant density, and etc., and in isotope inventory. The framework for doing nonlinear diffusion acceleration (NDA) within Rattlesnake has been set up, and both NDA calculations with SAAF-SN-CFEM scheme and Monte Carlo with OpenMC have been performed. It was also used for coupling BISON and RELAP-7 for the full-core multiphysics simulations. Within the last fiscal year, significant improvements have been made in Rattlesnake. Rattlesnake development was migrated into our internal GITLAB development environment at the end of year 2014. Since then total 369 merge requests has been accepted into Rattlesnake. It is noted that the MOOSE framework that Rattlesnake is based on is under continuous developments. Improvements made in MOOSE can improve the Rattlesnake. It is acknowledged that MOOSE developers spent efforts on patching Rattlesnake for the improvements made on the framework side. This report will not cover the code restructuring for better readability and modularity and documentation improvements, which we have spent tremendous effort on. It only details some of improvements in the following sections.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Verification of the CENTRM Module for Adaptation of the SCALE Code to NGNP Prismatic and PBR Core Designs

The generation of multigroup cross sections lies at the heart of the very high temperature reactor (VHTR) core design, whether the prismatic (block) or pebble-bed type. The design process, generally performed in three steps, is quite involved and its execution is crucial to proper reactor physics analyses. The primary purpose of this project is to develop the CENTRM cross-section processing module of the SCALE code package for application to prismatic or pebble-bed core designs. The team will include a detailed outline of the entire processing procedure for application of CENTRM in a final report complete with demonstration. In addition, they will conduct a thorough verification of the CENTRM code, which has yet to be performed. The tasks for this project are to: Thoroughly test the panel algorithm for neutron slowing down; Develop the panel algorithm for multi-materials; Establish a multigroup convergence 1D transport acceleration algorithm in the panel formalism; Verify CENTRM in 1D plane geometry; Create and test the corresponding transport/panel algorithm in spherical and cylindrical geometries; and, Apply the verified CENTRM code to current VHTR core design configurations for an infinite lattice, including assessing effectiveness of Dancoff corrections to simulate TRISO particle heterogeneity.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Modeling, Performance Assessment, and Nodal Data Analysis of TRISO-Fueled Systems with Shift

This technical report documents several enhancements to the Shift Monte Carlo (MC) code under the US Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program in fiscal year (FY) 2022. Performance enhancements were added to Shift specifically for tristructural isotropic (TRISO)–fueled reactor systems and guided based on performance analysis in FY 2021. For the pebble performance model developed in previous studies, the runtime improved by ~ 91× compared to the original model and ~ 2× compared to the user-optimized model. Compared to Serpent, Shift is ~ 3× slower if Serpent delta-tracking is enabled but ~ 2× faster when delta-tracking is disabled. The multigroup cross section generation was improved through simplifying tally input definitions, porting several post-processing tally operations from Python scripts into the Shift code base, and accounting for production reactions in the scattering multiplicity. Progress was also made on two emerging capabilities: (1) the development of Titan (a Shift reactor physics user interface) and (2) initial investigation into path-length tallies for computing multigroup scattering matrices.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

SCALE/AMPX multigroup libraries for sodium-cooled fast reactor systems

New multigroup cross section libraries and associated covariance files that are optimized for the analysis of sodium-cooled fast reactors were generated with the AMPX tools distributed with the SCALE code system. These new libraries account for the fast neutron flux spectrum with sufficient resolution of resonances in the higher energy range to reproduce continuous-energy reference results and to provide the basis for sensitivity and uncertainty analyses of fast spectrum systems with the SCALE code system. The performance of the new libraries was investigated in terms of the eigenvalue, the neutron flux and reaction rates in criticality calculations, and the generation of group constants. A library using 302 energy groups and a fast neutron flux spectrum as the weighting function led to very good agreement with reference continuous-energy results. As a result, the performance of the new library was demonstrated in calculations of experiments from the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project handbook.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Advanced Cross Section Library Generation using Reduced Order Models

Deterministic neutronics calculations rely on multigroup neutron cross section libraries, which consist of databases of tabulated values, used to calculate the neutron cross sections through multivariate linear interpolation. However, interpolation of the multidimensional cross section data becomes memory inefficient and time consuming as the number of tabulations increases, significantly slowing down the neutronics calculation, especially in the case of microscopic cross section libraries where every isotope (on the order of hundreds) has its own set of specific reactions and cross sections. In order to address this challenge, this work constructs efficient and robust reduced-order models (ROMs) of the multi-group cross sections to support the Griffin simulation of high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs). The first part of the study investigates the linearity of the multigroup cross section data across isotopes, reaction types, and energy groups on pre-generated datasets for the purpose of dimensionality reduction. Secondly, a down-selection of ROM techniques is presented on representative classical machine learning (ML) techniques, including variants of linear regression, kernel-based methods, tree-based algorithms, and artificial neural networks. The selection criteria jointly consider the memory efficiency, predictive accuracy, prediction speed, and scalability in comparison to the multidimensional interpolation. Among all the ML techniques, deep neural networks (DNNs) have proven to be the best selection with sufficient accuracy, high robustness, good memory efficiency, great scalability, and superior flexibility. DNNs have been trained for all isotopes in this work and systematic Griffin testing is ongoing to ensure the feasibility of this ROM technique for predicting cross section and reducing memory requirements without a significant sacrifice in computational performance.

42 - ENGINEERING↗

Transient Multiphysics Simulations with Pin Power Reconstruction in the Griffin Reactor Physics Code

This work introduces the pin power reconstruction capability available in the Griffin reactor physics code. This capability is implemented in an unstructured mesh framework, and the methods introduced are applied to the 2D SIMBA reactor core, which has assemblies and pins arranged in a hexagonal lattice. Since this reactor has a non-Cartesian geometry and also operates in the thermal spectrum, a general approach to pin power reconstruction is adopted, where SPH-based equivalence is leveraged to preserve assembly-wise reaction rates, while computing full-core form functions to preserve pin-wise fission production rates within the fuel pins of the reactor core. In a 2D microreactor benchmark problem, this pin power reconstruction approach was shown to reproduce pin powers compared to the Serpent2 Monte Carlo code for fixed temperature conditions and control drum rotation angles, yielding a core-wide RMS error level of 0.6\% and a maximum absolute pin error of 2.3\%. In addition, a tabulated library of multigroup cross sections, SPH factors, and form functions was generated to demonstrate the applicability of pin power reconstruction to a thermal feedback problem. Finally, a control drum transient was successfully simulated, showcasing the application of pin power reconstruction in a transient multiphysics feedback problem.

97 - MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Probability of Initiation in Neutron Transport

We discuss the numerical solution of the nonlinear integro-differential equation for the probability of a divergent neutron chain in a stationary system (i.e., the probability of initiation (POI)). We follow the development described in Bell’s classic paper on the stochastic theory of neutron transport. As noted by Bell, the linearized form of this equation resembles the linear adjoint neutron transport equation. A matrix formalism for the discretized steady state (or forward) neutron equation in slab geometry is first developed and is then used to derive the discrete adjoint equation. A main advantage of this discrete development is that the resulting discrete adjoint equation does not depend upon how the multigroup cross sections for the forward problem are obtained. That is, we derive the discrete adjoint directly from the discrete forward equations rather than discretizing directly the adjoint equation. This also guarantees that the discrete adjoint operator is consistent with the inner product used to define the adjoint operator. We discuss three approaches for the numerical solution of the POI equations, and present numerical results on several test problems. The three solution methods are a simple fixed-point iteration, a second approach that is akin to a nonlinear Power iteration, and a third approach which uses a Newton-Krylov nonlinear solver. We also give sufficient conditions to guarantee the existence and uniqueness of nontrivial solutions to our discrete POI equations when the discrete system is supercritical, and that only the trivial solution exists when the discrete system is subcritical. Our approach is modeled after the analysis presented for the continuous POI equations by Mokhtar-Kharroubi and Jarmouni-Idrissi, and by Pazy and Rabinowitz.

42 ENGINEERING↗

OpenMC

OpenMC is an open source, community-developed framework for performing Monte Carlo particle transport calculations.It is capable of simulating neutron and photon transport below ~50 MeV and also includes a model for bremsstrahlung production of photons by electrons/positrons. Fixed source, k-eigenvalue, and subcritical multiplication problems can be solved. Problem geometries can be modeled either using constructive solid geometry or a CAD representation. A flexible and efficient tally system enables a wide variety of physical quantities to be tallied and analyzed. OpenMC can run in parallel using a hybrid MPI and OpenMP programming model and has been extensively tested on leadership class supercomputers. A built-in Bateman equation solver enables the modeling of material composition changes due to irradiation. One of the unique features of OpenMC is its rich, extensible Python and C/C++ programming interfaces that enable programming pre- and post-processing, multigroup cross section generation, workflow automation, multiphysics coupling, and the visualization of geometry and tally results. In addition to the core Monte Carlo transport solver and associated APIs, OpenMC includes a Python-based nuclear data interface that enables power users to inspect, modify,and perform various types of nuclear data processing on ENDF, ACE, and OpenMC¿s native HDF5 files

ROMANO, PaulK.↗

SEFOR Core I-E

This repository contains the VTB model developed for the Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor (SEFOR) core configuration I-E using the NEAMS tools. The MOOSE Reactor Module was employed to set up the geometry mesh, MC2-3 was applied to generate multigroup cross sections at various temperatures, and Griffin was used to calculate the k-eff values of Core I-E across these temperature conditions. To validate the deterministic results from Griffin, reference solutions were obtained with the Monte Carlo code Shift. The reactivity feedback was then derived and compared against SEFOR experimental data from isothermal tests in order to assess the performance of Griffin. Reproducing these results requires licensed access to several code systems, including Shift, Griffin, and MC2-3. Instructions for obtaining and accessing these codes can be found at the following locations: https://www.ornl.gov/scale/releases for SCALE/Shift, https://mooseframework.inl.gov/ncrc/applications/ncrc_root_griffin.html for Griffin, and https://www.anl.gov/nse/mc23 for MC2-3.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

Development of a generalized perturbation theory method for sensitivity analysis using continuous-energy Monte Carlo methods

The sensitivity and uncertainty analysis tools of the ORNL SCALE nuclear modeling and simulation code system that have been developed over the last decade have proven indispensable for numerous application and design studies for nuclear criticality safety and reactor physics. SCALE contains tools for analyzing the uncertainty in the eigenvalue of critical systems, but cannot quantify uncertainty in important neutronic parameters such as multigroup cross sections, fuel fission rates, activation rates, and neutron fluence rates with realistic three-dimensional Monte Carlo simulations. A more complete understanding of the sources of uncertainty in these design-limiting parameters could lead to improvements in process optimization, reactor safety, and help inform regulators when setting operational safety margins. A novel approach for calculating eigenvalue sensitivity coefficients, known as the CLUTCH method, was recently explored as academic research and has been found to accurately and rapidly calculate sensitivity coefficients in criticality safety applications. The work presented here describes a new method, known as the GEAR-MC method, which extends the CLUTCH theory for calculating eigenvalue sensitivity coefficients to enable sensitivity coefficient calculations and uncertainty analysis for a generalized set of neutronic responses using high-fidelity continuous-energy Monte Carlo calculations. Here, several criticality safety systems were examined to demonstrate proof of principle for the GEAR-MC method, and GEAR-MC was seen to produce response sensitivity coefficients that agreed well with reference direct perturbation sensitivity coefficients.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

(U) Feynman-Y calculations using PARTISN

A prescription for computing the Feynman Y as a function of coincidence gate width using a deterministic multigroup neutron transport code has been published and the results compared favorably with measurements of the BeRP ball. In this paper, we report on our project to implement the method and reproduce the results. There are several clarifications and corrections of the published prescription. We show results using two multigroup cross section libraries compared with measurements and with Monte Carlo results. Deterministic simulations of the mean count rates compare very favorably with previously published Monte Carlo results, and deterministic simulations of the Feynman Y asymptote compare somewhat favorably. In Feynman beta plots, the deterministic simulations reached the asymptotic value much sooner than did a fit to the measured data.

42 ENGINEERING↗

VERA-CS Verification & Validation Plan

This report summarizes the current status of VERA-CS Verification and Validation for PWR Core Follow operation and proposes a multi-phase plan for continuing VERA-CS V&V in FY17 and FY18. The proposed plan recognizes the hierarchical nature of a multi-physics code system such as VERA-CS and the importance of first achieving an acceptable level of V&V on each of the single physics codes before focusing on the V&V of the coupled physics solution. The report summarizes the V&V of each of the single physics codes systems currently used for core follow analysis (ie MPACT, CTF, Multigroup Cross Section Generation, and BISON / Fuel Temperature Tables) and proposes specific actions to achieve a uniformly acceptable level of V&V in FY17. The report also recognizes the ongoing development of other codes important for PWR Core Follow (e.g. TIAMAT, MAMBA3D) and proposes Phase II (FY18) VERA-CS V&V activities in which those codes will also reach an acceptable level of V&V. The report then summarizes the current status of VERA-CS multi-physics V&V for PWR Core Follow and the ongoing PWR Core Follow V&V activities for FY17. An automated procedure and output data format is proposed for standardizing the output for core follow calculations and automatically generating tables and figures for the VERA-CS Latex file. A set of acceptance metrics is also proposed for the evaluation and assessment of core follow results that would be used within the script to automatically flag any results which require further analysis or more detailed explanation prior to being added to the VERA-CS validation base. After the Automation Scripts have been completed and tested using BEAVRS, the VERA-CS plan proposes the Watts Bar cycle depletion cases should be performed with the new cross section library and be included in the first draft of the new VERA-CS manual for release at the end of PoR15. Also, within the constraints imposed by the proprietary nature of plant data, as many as possible of the FY17 AMA Plant Core Follow cases should also be included in the VERA-CS manual at the end of PoR15. After completion of the ongoing development of TIAMAT for fully coupled, full core calculations with VERA-CS / BISON 1.5D, and after the completion of the refactoring of MAMBA3D for CIPS analysis in FY17, selected cases from the VERA-CS validation based should be performed, beginning with the legacy cases of Watts Bar and BEAVRS in PoR16. Finally, as potential Phase III future work some additional considerations are identified for extending the VERA-CS V&V to other reactor types such as the BWR.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Verification and Validation Tests of the Gamma Library of the ARC Software Package (Rev.1)

As part of the verification and validation (V&V) efforts of the Argonne Reactor Code (ARC) software system to support the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) project of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), work has been performed to verify and validate the gamma (or photon) library of the multigroup cross section generation code MC 2 -3 of the ARC system, which is the essential part of the coupled neutron and gamma heating calculations to determine the heat generation rate or power distribution in the core. This V&V study was carried out in three steps: 1) review of the procedures and utility programs for generating the MC 2 -3 gamma library, 2) verification tests of cross sections and KERMA factors by comparing the total heat generation rate of coupled neutron and gamma calculation with that obtained with reaction Q values under the assumption of local gamma energy deposition and by comparing the prompt heat generation rate with that calculated with the MCNP6.2 code, and 3) validation tests of cross sections and KERMA factors by analyzing the ZPPR-15D gamma dose data measured with thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD).

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Development and Porting of Nuclear Reactor Computational Models for the NRIC Virtual Test Bed in FY23

The U.S. DOE’s National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) hosts an open-source website and associated GitHub repository called the Virtual Test Bed (VTB) on which computational models for advanced reactors are documented and shared with the reactor community. In FY23 under the NRIC program, computational models for nuclear reactor analysis were developed and contributed to the VTB Github repository during FY23 by contributors at Argonne National Laboratory. Other models developed outside of NRIC were also ported to the VTB as part of this work, serving a broader mission to make computational reactor analysis models more widely available to the reactor community. The model development activities focused on demonstration of gas-cooled microreactor models including computational fluid dynamics simulations of flow through an industry-inspired air jacket design, and simulation of multiphysics transients for a gas-cooled microreactor assembly. Additionally, development of a molten salt reactor (led at Idaho National Laboratory) was supported through Argonne’s expertise in multigroup cross sections generation. Models for these two reactor types were targeted due to their relevancy to NRIC’s Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) and Laboratory for Operation and Testing in the U.S. (LOTUS) physical test beds, which are slated to host microreactor and molten salt reactor experiments. The model porting activities consisted of developing detailed documentation for several physics models which originate from the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program. We include only contributions from Argonne National Laboratory in this report.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Modeling Enhancements and Demonstration of Shift Capabilities for PBRs and MSRs

This technical report documents the modeling enhancements and demonstrations with the Shift Monte Carlo (MC) code targeted at pebble-bed reactors (PBRs) and molten salt reactors (MSRs) under the US Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program in fiscal year (FY) 2023. The work performed included several enhancements, such as improvements for multigroup cross section generation, a new eigenvalue mode considering only prompt fission neutrons, and enhancements to the Titan frontend for Shift to allow for new geometry types and tally functionality. Additionally, new PBR equilibrium core search reference calculations were generated with Shift and compared to Serpent calculations provided by Idaho National Laboratory (INL). These enhancements provide a robust foundation for applying Shift for both reference and two-step neutronics analysis for advanced reactor simulation.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Verification of the ENDF/B-VII.1 Based MC 2 -3 Library Rev.1

The MC 2 -3 code, developed by Argonne National Laboratory under the DOE-NE NEAMS program, is a multigroup cross section generation code for fast reactor applications. Last year, the ENDF/B-VII.0 (E70) MC 2 -3 library, which has been extensively used, verified, and validated over a long period, was intensively reverified and updated to support the commercial grade dedication (CGD) requirement of the TerraPower Natrium project. This year, the ENDF/B-VII.1 (E71) MC 2 -3 library, the preliminary version of which was generated several years ago, was regenerated and rigorously verified to support the Natrium project as well as the completion of verification of the E71 library. The E71 library was verified using the process developed during the verification of the E70 library, including comparisons of cross sections with the NJOY-generated cross sections, comparisons of the resolved resonance cross sections with those using the PEDNF library, and comparison of total cross sections with the sum of partial cross sections. Additional verifications were conducted to ensure that the benchmark problem solutions with the E71 library are reasonable compared to the corresponding Monte Carlo solutions. Furthermore, the E71 gamma library was generated, which includes data for prompt gamma, delayed gamma, and delayed beta as well as neutron and gamma heating. The gamma library was verified at the level of individual isotopes. The EBR-II core solutions from MC 2 -3/ DIF3D and MCNP were compared, demonstrating that those solutions in terms of k-effective and assembly powers were in good agreement.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

L3:RTM.MCH.P19.06: Neutronics UQ

This report summarizes some of the work performed in the last year on the nuclear data uncertainty tasks using the multipole representation. This approach was proposed to provide a simple and integrated way of evaluating the nuclear data uncertainty in a Monte Carlo simulation and evaluating their impact on multigroup cross sections. As previously described, the windowed multipole format allows for a resonance based representation of the cross sections with direct Doppler broadening. This representation also lends itself nicely to the evaluation of sensitivities of resonance parameters and the direct perturbation of resonance parameters in the simulation environment. Both of these approaches rely on the need of conversion of the covariance data (File 32 of the ENDF library) into a pole and residues form: i.e. into a multipole covariance. Section 5 details the current pathways that have been used so far to achieve this. In order to verify the conversion process of the covariance data, the sensitivies to the resonance parameters and the sampling from these parameters, an analytical benchmark of the slowing process was developed. The benchmark provides a closed-form solution for the flux in the presence of Hydrogen and multiple resonant nuclides. Section 2 details the analytical benchmark and provides the closed-form solutions for the flux and its sensitivity to resonance parameters. A verification of the proposed methodology is performed and compared with the analytic solution to demonstrate the accuracy of the benchmark and the applicability of our embedded resonance perturbation approach in a small Monte Carlo code. Papers are currently being drafted documenting the benchmark and the generation of sensitivities. As paths to best generate multipole covariance matrices are being compared, we also explored new methods to propagate nuclear data uncertainty across the Monte Carlo neutron transport calculation. Section 4 studies the use of multipole covariance matrices to perform sensitivity analysis. Section 3.2 documents the results of our investigations into a new way of propagating nuclear data uncertainty across Monte Carlo transport simulations by sampling new epistemic cross sections for each new neutron.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗