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Nuclear Data Uncertainty Analysis on a Minor Actinide Burner for Transmuting Spent Fuel

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Nuclear Data Uncertainty Analysis on a Minor Actinide Burner for Transmuting Spent Fuel KR9900066 KAERDTR-1112/98 NUCLEAR DATA UNCERTAINTY ANALYSIS ON A MINOR ACTINIDE BURNER FOR TRANSMUTING SPENT FUEL August 1998 KOREA ATOMIC ENERGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE 30-46 KAERFTR-1112/98 4 1998 \l£ "DUPIC 1998\i : DUPIC : 2) tg- 1 - KAERFTR-1112/98 Nuclear Data Uncertainty Analysis on a Minor Actinide Burner for Transmuting Spent Fuel by Hangbok Choi August 1998 Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute P.O. Box 105, Yuseong Taejon, Korea, 305-600 - 2 - KAERFTR-1112/98 NUCLEAR DATA UNCERTAINTY ANALYSIS ON A MINOR ACTINIDE BURNER FOR TRANSMUTING SPENT FUEL Hangbok Choi Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute P.O. Box 105, Yuseong Taejon, 305-600, Korea ABSTRACT A comprehensive sensitivity and uncertainty analysis was performed on a 1200 MWth minor actinide burner designed for a low burnup reactivity swing, negative doppler coefficient, and low sodium void worth. Sensitivities of the performance parameters were generated using depletion perturbation methods for the constrained close fuel cycle of the reactor. The uncertainty analysis was performed using the sensitivity and covariance data taken from ENDF-B/V and other published sources. The uncertainty analysis of a liquid metal reactor for burning minor actinides has shown that uncertainties in the nuclear data of several key minor actinide isotopes can introduce large uncertainties in the predicted performance of the core. The relative uncertainties in the burnup swing, doppler coefficient, and void worth were conservatively estimated to be 180%, 97%, and 46%, respectively. An analysis was performed to prioritize the minor actinide reactions for reducing the uncertainties. - 3 - KAERI/TR-1112/98 TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION PAGE ABSTRACT 3 I. INTRODUCTION 8 II. MINOR ACTINIDE BURNER DESIGN 10 II. 1 Design Characteristics 10 11.2 Fuel Cycle Model 10 11.3 Safety Performance 11 III. SENSITIVITY METHOD FOR PERFORMANCE PARAMETERS 12 III.l Closed Fuel Cycle Sensitivity ;••• 12 III. 1.1 Sensitivity of Charge Density 14 III. 1.2 Sensitivity of Reprocessed Density 14 III. 1.3 Sensitivity of Feed Density 15 III. 1.4 Numerical Examples 16 ni.2 Sensitivity of Safety Performance Parameters 17 111.2.1 Sensitivity of Burnup Reactivity Swing • 17 111.2.2 Sensitivity of Void Worth 18 111.2.3 Sensitivity of Doppler Constant 19 111.2.4 Sensitivity of Number Density 20 111.2.5 Sensitivity of Transmutatioin Flux 21 111.3 Applicution to Minor Actinide Burner 22 111.4 Summary 24 IV. UNCERTAINTY ANALYSIS 26 IV.l Preparation of Covariance Data • 27 IV.1.1 Covariance Data Generation 27 IV.1.2 Additional Covariance Data 28 - A - KAERI/TR-1112/98 IV.2 Uncertainly in Predicted Performance Parameter 29 IV.2.1 Burnup Reactivity Swing ••• 29 IV.2.2 Void Worth 30 IV.2.3 Doppler Constant 30 IV.3 Uncertainty. Reductiion • 31 FV.3.1 Requirement of Reactor Design 31 IV.3.2 Methods for Estimating Required Accuracy of Nuclear Data 32 IV.3.3 Required Accuracy of Nuclear Data 36 IV.4 Summary • 37 V. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS 39 REFERENCES 41 - 5 - KAERFTR-1112/98 TABLES PAGE Table I. Mass Flow of Closed Fuel Cycle (kg/yr) 45 Table II. Multi-group Structure 46 Table II. Constrained Sensitivity to ^Np y3 for Final MAB Model 47 Table IV. Region-wise Sensitivities to ^Np"^ for Final MAB Model 48 Table V. Sensitivity of Burnup Reactivity Swing for Final MAB Model 49 Table VI. Sensitivity of Void Worth (EOEC) for Final MAB Model 50 Table VII. Sensitivity of Doppler Constant (EOEC) for Final MAB Model 51 Table VIII. Covariance Matrices Affected by Ratio Measurements inENDF/B-V 52 Table IX. Additional Relative Standard Deviations (%) 53 Table X. Uncertainty of Performance Parameters at EOEC (ENDF/B-V Covariance Data) 54 Table XI. Uncertainty of Performance Parameters at EOEC (ENDF/BTV + Additional Covariance Data) 55 Table XII. Uncertainty of Burnup Reactivity Swing (Variance Term) • 56 Table XIII. Uncertainty of Void Worth (Variance Term) 57 Table XIV. Uncertainty of Doppler Constant (Variance Term) 58 Table XV. Uncertainty Requirement of Nuclear Data for Burnup Reactivity Swing 59 Table XVI. Uncertainty Requirement of Nuclear Data for EOEC Void Worth ••• 60 Table XVII. Uncertainty Requirement of Nuclear Data for EOEC Doppler Constant 61 - 6 - KAERFTR-1112/98 FIGURES PAGE Fig.l Mass Flow of MAB Fuel Cycle 62 - 7 KAERLTR-1112/98 I. INTRODUCTION The transmutation of long-lived minor actinides has been studied as a means of mitigating the high level waste disposal problem.1"3 For the transmutation of minor actinides, the Liquid Metal Reactor (LMR) offers an advantage because of a preferential fission to capture reaction ratio in the harder neutron spectrum4 and a lower spontaneous fission neutron activity.5 In previous work6, the LMR designs for the primary purpose of burning the minor actinide waste from commercial Light Water Reactors (LWR) have been investigated under the condition that it maintains acceptable safety performance as measured by the burnup reactivity swing, the doppler coefficient, and the sodium void worth. As a result, a 1200 MWth Minor Actinide Burner (MAB) core was designed such that it transmutes the annual minor actinide inventory of as many as 16 LWRs and still exhibits acceptable safety characteristics. One of the principal problems in the design and analysis of an MAB has been the lack of accurate nuclear data for the principal minor actinide isotopes.7 Nuclear data uncertainties have always been a significant source of error in predicting the performance of an LMR.8 Moreover, the problem is exacerbated in an MAB because the more common heavy metal isotopes such as MJ are replaced by isotopes such as ^Pu and ^Np for which nuclear data is much less well known. The effect of nuclear data uncertainty on the design of an MAB is particularly important because the key safety performance parameters are very sensitive to the poorly known minor actinide data. Specifically, the computed values of the burnup reactivity swing, the void coefficient, and the doppler coefficient of a minor actinide burner are highly sensitive to the minor actinide data. Several studies7'9 have shown that it is particularly difficult to maintain acceptable values of these performance parameters with a high minor actinide inventory and therefore it is important to establish the confidence with which they can be computed. The purpose of the work reported here is to analyze the effect of nuclear data KAERFTR-1112/98 uncertainties on the predicted performance of an MAB. Specifically, we examined the three core performance responses noted above, the burnup reactivity swing, the void coefficient, and the doppler coefficient, as well as the transmutation rates of the various minor actinide isotopes. We also performed a study to prioritize the nuclear data that would provide the greatest reduction in the uncertainty of the various responses. For the uncertainty analysis of the MAB core performance, the MAB design will first be reviewed briefly in Section II and the sensitivity method will be presented in Section III. The sensitivity method uses the sensitivity coefficients obtained from Depletion Perturbation Theory (DPT) and new sensitivities will be defined for the core performance parameters such as burnup reactivity swing, sodium void worth, and Doppler constant. In Section IV, the uncertainly of the most important three performance parameters will be evaluated using the sensitivity coefficient and covariance data processed from ENDF/B-V. The importance of each covariance data will be evaluated when the total uncertainty reduction is required. Section V summarizes the work and presents the conclusions. Some recommendations are also given in the final section. - 9 - KAERI/TR-1112/98 EL MINOR ACTINIDE BURNER DESIGN 11.1 Design Characteristics For the MAB design study, all calculations were performed using the Argonne National Laboratory code REBUS-310 which searches for the equilibrium cycle condition of the core. The MAB was designed as an annular core with two distinct core zones; an inner core consisting of minor actinide fuel and an outer core containing plutonium fuel. There are 114 inner core assemblies, 138 outer core assemblies, and 66 control rod sites. Both the inner and outer boundaries are surrounded with stainless steel reflector and shielded with B4C blocks. The control rod sites are filled with HT-9 rods when control rods are out in order to reduce the spectrum hardening in the event of coolant voiding. The horizontal and vertical configurations of the core are shown in Ref.6. 11.2 Fuel Cycle Model The MAB was determined to operate under three fuel batches and a 10 month cycle length. The feed material for the MAB is provided by a typical 1000 MWe LWR after cooling for 3 years. At the completion of each bumup cycle, the discharged fuel is recovered and fabricated with the external feed material in the fabrication plant. The external feed material is provided as separate plutonium and minor actinide streams. As a result, the actinide burner accepts 689 kg of minor actinides and 557 kg of plutonium per year, and the net consumption rate of minor actinides is 425 kg/yr. The minor actinides are continuously recycled in the core, however, 70% of the fissile plutonium is surplus material. The mass flow of the important isotopes is summarized in Table I. Assuming the typical 1000 MWe LWR generates about 26 kgs of minor actinides each year, the core design here can transmute the annual minor actinide inventory from about 16 LWRs. - 10 - KAERI/m-1112/98 n.3 Safety Performance The decoupled MAB core design enhances a small positive reactivity burnup swing (1.19 %/Jk) because the reactivity gain in the inner core is compensated by the reactivity loss in the outer core. The sodium void worth was also reduced by the aid of HT-9 rods deployed in the control rod sites and the annular core geometry which promotes the neutron leakage upon coolant voiding.
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