EFFECT OF CASMO-5 CROSS-SECTION DATA AND DOPPLER TEMPERATURE DEFINITIONS ON LWR REACTIVITY INITIATED ACCIDENTS

During LWR Reactivity Initiated Accidents (RIA), the accurate evaluation of the Doppler reactivity feedback depends on the Doppler coefficient computed by the lattice physics code (e.g. CASMO-5), and on the effective Doppler temperature computed by the transient code (e.g. SIMULATE-3K) using the non-uniform intra-pellet temperature profile. CASMO-5 has many new features compared with its predecessor. Among them, the replacement of the L-library (based primarily on ENDF/B IV data) by the latest available nuclear data (ENDF/B VII.0), and the Monte Carlo based resonance elastic scattering model to overcome deficiencies in NJOY modeling have a significant impact on the fuel temperature coefficient, and hence on LWR RIA. The Doppler temperature effect in thermal reactors is driven by the 238 U absorption. The different effective Doppler temperature definitions, available in the literature, try to capture the considerable selfshielding of the 238 U absorption that occurs in the pellet surface by defining an appropriate fuel temperature to compute cross-sections. In this work, we investigate the effect of the nuclear data generated by CASMO-5 on RIA, as well as the impact of different effective Doppler temperature definitions, including one proposed by the authors. It is concluded: 1) LWR RIA evaluated using CASMO-5 cross section data will be milder because the energy released is ~10% smaller; 2) the prompt enthalpy rise is barely affected by the choice of the Doppler temperature definition; and 3) the peak fuel enthalpy is affected by the choice of the Doppler temperature definition, the underprediction of the Doppler reactivity by the ‘NEA’ Doppler temperature results in a conservative estimate of the peak fuel enthalpy.