PERFORMANCE OF THE EXPLICIT EULER AND PREDICTOR-CORRECTOR-BASED COUPLING SCHEMES IN MONTE CARLO BURNUP CALCULATIONS OF FAST REACTORS

• We present a stability test of the explicit Euler and predictor-corrector based coupling schemes in Monte Carlo burnup calculations of the gas fast reactor fuel assembly. Previous studies have identified numerical instabilities of these coupling schemes in Monte Carlo burnup calculations of thermal-spectrum reactors due to spatial feedback induced neutron flux and nuclide density oscillations, where only sufficiently small time steps could guarantee acceptable precision. New results suggest that these instabilities are insignificant in fast-spectrum assembly burnup calculations, and the considered coupling schemes can therefore perform well in fast-spectrum reactor burnup calculations even with relatively large time steps. Note: Some figures in this technical note may be in color only in the electronic version.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Monte Carlo

fast reactor

burn up calculations

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)