Development and Validation of the GT-SCALE Code Package for Advanced Rector Core Designs

Principal Investigator: Vujic

The disposition of weapons grade plutonium could be
accomplished by utilizing the existing LWR facilities or by developing
new concepts specifically designed for plutonium burning. The goal
is to develop a unique computational methodology that can be, without
any modifications and limitations, used for analysis of current
and future Light Water Reactors (LWR), Liquid Metal Fast Breeder
Reactors (LMFBR) as well as High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactors
(HTGR) that can be used for plutonium disposition. A new fuel assembly
analysis code, referred to as GT-SCALE, is being developed by "marrying"
GTRAN2 and the SAS2H sequence of the SCALE 4.2 ORNL code package.
GT-SCALE is expected to enable a more accurate simulation of highly
heterogeneous and MOX fueled LWR fuel assemblies than most of the
existing assembly simulation codes. This is due to a combination
of GT-SCALE's ability to solve the transport equation in as detailed
a resolution in both the spatial and energy-dependent variables,
along with its powerful burnup calculational capability. GT-SCALE
will enable to simulate the composition variation with burnup for
different cylindrical shells corresponding to a given (or any number
of) fuel rods within the assembly. This capability can be particularly
useful for the simulation of the effect of burnup on fuel or absorber
rods which are subjected to strongly varying fluxes - such as for
burnable poisons, particularly when using plutonium for the fuel.
In addition, powerful graphical-user interface is being developed
that will simplify input preparation for complex geometries. The
project has been partly funded by Oak Ridge National Laboratory
and the Department of Energy High Performance Computing Fellowship.