Fuel Assembly Calculations Using the Method of Discrete Ordinates

• Published in: Nuclear science and engineering Vol. 149; no. 2; pp. 197 - 210
• Main Authors: Pautz, Andreas, Hesse, Ulrich, Zwermann, Winfried, Langenbuch, Siegfried
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: La Grange Park, IL Taylor & Francis 01.02.2005; American Nuclear Society
• Subjects: Applied sciences; BURNUP; CARTESIAN COORDINATES; CONFIGURATION; CROSS SECTIONS; DISCRETE ORDINATE METHOD; EIGENVALUES; Energy; Energy. Thermal use of fuels; Exact sciences and technology; Fission nuclear power plants; FUEL ASSEMBLIES; Fuels; GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS; Installations for energy generation and conversion: thermal and electrical energy; NUCLEAR FUELS; POWER DISTRIBUTION; Preparation and processing of nuclear fuels; REACTOR FUELING; Discretization; Fuel assembly; Power distribution; Eigenvalue; Computation code; Nuclear fuel; Coupled transport; Cross section (collision); Fuel pin; Computing method; Discrete ordinate method
• ISSN: 0029-5639; 1943-748X
• DOI: 10.13182/NSE05-A2488

The discrete ordinates code DORT is employed to treat pin cell and fuel assembly configurations in two spatial dimensions. Despite DORT's restriction to regular (i.e., Cartesian) coordinates, we demonstrate its ability to calculate accurate pin power distributions and eigenvalues of typical reactor fuel lattices. Several numerical experiments have been performed to investigate the effects of spatial, angular, and energy discretization and to quantify their impact on the results. DORT is also used to homogenize and collapse cross-section sets within the framework of the coupled transport/burnup code system KENOREST.