Issue |
EPJ Web Conf.
Volume 247, 2021
PHYSOR2020 – International Conference on Physics of Reactors: Transition to a Scalable Nuclear Future
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|
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Article Number | 15014 | |
Number of page(s) | 8 | |
Section | Sensitivity & Uncertainty Methods | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202124715014 | |
Published online | 22 February 2021 |
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202124715014
QUANTIFICATION OF NUCLEAR DATA AND MANUFACTURING UNCERTAINTIES IN VERA
North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27607
cssedota@ncsu.edu
sppalmta@ncsu.edu
Published online: 22 February 2021
Uncertainty quantification (UQ) was performed using the Consortium for the Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) multiphysics core simulator VERA. Typically, only nuclear data cross sections are considered when trying to obtain uncertainty information in reactor simulation applications. In this paper, uncertainty in both nuclear cross section data and fuel manufacturing processes is analyzed using VERA. Uncertainties due to cross sections was determined by generating one thousand perturbed cross section libraries using the cross section covariance data provided in the evaluated nuclear data library. Uncertainty due to manufacturing was also determined using stochastic sampling and VERA. The use of similar stochastic sampling techniques for the same problems allows for the direct comparison of uncertainty stemming from the two sources of uncertainty. Sample size is considered due to the potentially large computational cost of stochastic sampling techniques, as is demonstrated in a full core depletion. It was found that for the Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) pincell case at Hot Zero Power (HZP), the standard deviation in the neutron multiplication factor produced by material uncertainty was 101 pcm, while the standard deviation in the neutron multiplication factor produced by cross section uncertainty was 730 pcm. While the uncertainty in neutron multiplication factor due to cross section uncertainty is larger than uncertainty due to manufacturing uncertainties, neglecting manufacturing uncertainties may be an unacceptable oversight in certain high-precision simulation applications.
Key words: Uncertainty Quantification / VERA / Core Simulator
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2021
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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