Implementation of Depletion Architecture in the MAMMOTH Reactor Physics Application
Nuclear fuel experiments conducted at the Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT) will be analyzed with the MAMMOTH reactor physics application, currently under development at Idaho National Laboratory. MAMMOTH natively couples with the BISON, RELAP-7, and Rattlesnake applications within the MOOSE framework. The methods currently implemented allow for simulating the irradiation of fuel from the beginning of life in a nuclear reactor until it is placed in TREAT for fuel testing using the same finite element mesh throughout the analysis thereby retaining a very high level of resolution and fidelity. The calculation of the isotopic distribution in fuel requires the solution to the decay and transmutation equations coupled to the neutron transport equation. This work focuses on two significant improvements to the MAMMOTH micro-depletion capability. First, the depletion architecture within MAMMOTH is modified to improve the flexibility and speed of burnup calculations. The results of various benchmark tests demonstrate the accuracy of the modified implementation. The second improvement involves the expansion of the data functionality. MAMMOTH can now read the decay data files used by the Oak Ridge Isotope Generation (ORIGEN) code, thus enabling access to data of more than 1,600 isotopes. Comparison of ORIGEN and MAMMOTH for a selected benchmark problem was performed. Both codes yield very similar results, with differences of 0.03% that can be attributed to differences in precision between the two codes. Future work will focus on comparisons between MAMMOTH and ORIGEN for more complex problems.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- INL
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC07-05ID14517
- OSTI ID:
- 1545534
- Report Number(s):
- INL/EXP-19-54991-Rev000
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: INL Intern Expo 2019, Idaho Falls, ID, 08/08/2019 - 08/08/2019
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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