Updates to the Godiva-IV Model with Experimental Improvements to K-eff Values
Open Access
- Author:
- Hagopian, Victoria
- Graduate Program:
- Nuclear Engineering
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- November 20, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Leigh Winfrey, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Jean Paul Allain, Program Head/Chair
Xing Wang, Committee Member
Arthur Thompson Motta, Special Signatory - Keywords:
- Godiva IV
k-eff
ICSBEP Benchmark
MCNP
ENDF/B-VII.1
ENDF/B-VIII.0
HEU-MET-FAST-086 - Abstract:
- The United States has had a proud history of Fast Burst Reactor fabrication and research. Discussed are the FBR devices in the Godiva series and how their development impacted the proceeding generations of FBR design. Great focus was placed on the Godiva IV Fast Burst Reactor as there had been changes that needed to be made to the MCNP ® [1] model for the ICSBEP HEU-MET-FAST-086 simplified model that was included in the benchmark. During the move from TA-18 to the National Critical Experiment Research Center located in the DAF at the NNSS, a shim was found between the safety block and safety block base – a new one was fabricated to replace this existing component and a model needed as it was not included in the original MCNP ® model presented in the ICSBEP HMF-086 Benchmark. At the time of the move from TA-18, the Core Cover (also referred to as the Top Hat) was switched to a different one. These two components, along with an updated spindle, were modeled and the results of the new Updated Simplified Model were compared to those of Case 4 from the HEU-FAST-086 benchmark. Computations were performed using two libraries: ENDF/B-VII.1 and the new ENDF/B-VIII.0 to see how choice of nuclear data library would effect k-eff in addition to specific changes to the model, such as the effect that the shim had across the two libraries.