A New Breakdown Methodology To Estimate Neutronic Model Biases Applied To Apollo3 SFR Core Calculations

V. Jouault (1) , J.-M. Palau (1) , G. Rimpault (1) , J.-F. Vidal (1)

1 CEA-DES (ex-DEN) - CEA-Direction des Energies (ex-Direction de l'Energie Nucléaire)

This paper presents a new breakdown methodology to estimate independently model biases for each approximations of a given calculation scheme. This new methodology is set to be applied on the new French deterministic neutron transport code APOLLO3, and be a part of its advanced VetV process. The first step of the method is the identification of approximations of the different solvers. Then, we measure the impact of each relevant approximation on core characteristics. To do so, we use ad-hoc TRIPOLI-4 multi-group calculations, either using APOLLO3 cross section, or making it generate its own multi-group cross sections. The methodology is applied on the ASTRID CFV core, and gives satisfactory results. It allows us to evaluate the impact of changes in the calculation scheme, leading to an improved calculation scheme and excellent results for reactivity and reactivity effects, especially in voided configurations.

Mots clés: APOLLO3; VandV; ASTRID

Domaines: Physique Nucléaire Expérimentale [nucl-ex]; Physique Nucléaire Théorique [nucl-th]

V. Jouault, J.-M. Palau, G. Rimpault, J.-F. Vidal. A New Breakdown Methodology To Estimate Neutronic Model Biases Applied To Apollo3 SFR Core Calculations. M&C 2017 - International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering, Apr 2017, Jeju, South Korea. ⟨cea-02434517⟩