International Journal of Physics and Research (IJPR) ISSN 2250-0030 Vol.2, Issue 2 Dec 2012 23-29 TJPRC Pvt.

. Ltd.,

NEUTRONIC FLUX AND POWER DISTRIBUTION IN A NUCLEAR POWER REACTOR USING WIMS-D4 AND CITATION CODES
MAHER N.SARSAM1 & BASHAIR MOHAMMED SAIED2
1 2

Alsalam University College, Iraq

Bagdad University-college of Education.Ibn Al-Haitham, Iraq

ABSTRACT
The flux and power distribution of a WWER- 440 nuclear power reactor using CITATION code was calculated. The calculation of the neutronic cross sections values was done using WIMS-D4 code. The comparison between results and benchmark values of the power distributions shows a very good agreement.

KEYWORDS: WIMS-D4 Code, WWER- 440 Nuclear Power Reactor INTRODUCTION

The well known pressurized water reactors (PWR) WWER-440 [1] and WWER-1000 [2] are widely used in Russia and other east countries. The core of this type of reactors includes 349 hexagonal fuel assemblies with pitches of 14.4 cm, 37 of them are control and regulating assemblies having the same external dimensions as the fuel assemblies. The control and regulating assemblies contains a very high neutron absorber in its upper part, while their compositions are identical in its lower parts as for the fuel assemblies. Each fuel assembly is a cluster of 126 operating fuel pins, the cladding of the fuel elements is a tube of a special zirconium alloy, composed of zirconium alloy with 1% niobium, having outer diameter of 9.2 mm and inner diameter equal to 7.72 mm. As the other PWR, the UO2 fuel has three different initial enrichments in U-235 mainly 1.6%, 2.4% and 3.6%. The start- up loading of the reactor includes 100 fuel assemblies of 3.6% enrichment, 133 fuel assemblies of 2.4% enrichment and 116 fuel assemblies of 1.6% enrichment. The core

represents the heat source of a nuclear power plant and the ordinary water is used simultaneously as a moderator as well as coolant in order to remove the heat from the core. The outlet water temperature is 301 , while the inlet temperature is 268 .Two independent closed heat exchanger exist in this type of reactors, in the primary cycle the temperature is reduced from the operating temperature 301 to 288, with water pressure of 123 kgf/cm2, while in the secondary cycle the temperature is reduced to 268 with a water pressure of 47 kgf/cm2 [3]. The most important physical characteristics of the core are: Thermal power Electric power Average enrichment of fresh fuel Number of control rods Number of fuel assemblies Pressure Outlet temperature 1375 MW 440 MW 2.5% 37 312 123 bars 301

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THE DIFFUSION EQUATION

The one velocity diffusion equation for neutrons can be derived by considering the causes of the increase and decrease of the neutron density. The change in neutron density in any volume element of a specified medium results from the flow of neutrons across the surface of the element and the absorption of neutrons by the medium and also the production of neutrons by sources. The net flow of neutrons per unit volume per unit time is given by Ficks law, which states that, the current density vector is proportional to the negative gradient of the flux, i.e.: div J=div( D grad ) where: J is the net current , D is the diffusion coefficient and, is the neutron flux. If we define S as the number of neutrons emitted by the source per unit volume and unit time, then the time rate of change of neutron density n is equal:

Where

is the macroscopic cross section and

is the number of neutrons absorbed per unit volume per

unit time. If we consider the diffusion coefficient (D) as independent of position, then for a homogeneous medium, the above equation becomes;[4,5]:

For a flux time independent, the equation is reduced to:

This

equation

is

known

as

the

steady

state

diffusion

equation

for

one

group

energy.

In real situations, neutrons changes their energies due to scattering, they have then different energies. The one group diffusion equation must be then substitute by the multigroup diffusion equation it can be obtained by considering other terms, which must taken into account. The general form of multigroup diffusion equation is [6]:

With: , : : g=1 ,2 , N

scattering cross section, which is equal to transport cross sections from group h to group g transfer (or removal) cross section for the inelastic scattering from group g to group h ( g <h ).

is the fraction of neutrons appearing in the gth group.

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Maher N. Sarsam & Bashair Mohammed Saied

is the average number of neutrons emitted by fission due to neutron having energies in group h. Sg (ext) is the external source of neutrons. the fission cross section in group h

THE CALCULATION PROCEDURE

The reactor lattice code WIMS-D4 [7] was used to calculate the initial neutron flux distribution. WIMS has its own library of materials, it consists of 69 energy groups in the energy interval between 0 and 10 MeV. The code solves the neutron transport equation over a specified region of the reactor lattice, a unit cell in our case. The calculated neutron flux is used to get a set of macroscopic cross sections homogenized over a chosen sub regions and in a chosen broad group structure. Four energy groups are chosen in our case one for fast energy (10 MeV - 0.821 MeV), 2 groups for epithermal ( 0.821 MeV - 9.118 KeV and 9.118 KeV - 0.625 eV ), and one thermal (0.625 eV - 0.0 eV ) . The calculation of the

flux distribution was done using the multidimensional CITATION code[8] which is designed to solve the neutron diffusion theory by finite difference method.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Using the cluster geometry option of Wims-D4, the four groups macroscopic cross sections of the three types of fuel and regulating assemblies and moderator was obtained (tables 1-7). The CITATION code which solves the neutron flux distribution in three dimensions by finite difference techniques was used to obtain the neutron flux in the four considered energy groups in radial and axial coordinates as shown in figures 1 and 2 respectively. The calculated power distribution across the reactor core was compared with benchmark values as shows in figure 3. This result indicate clearly the validation of these two codes for WWER reactor type flux and power calculation.

REFERENCES
1) Fundamental of WWER Type Pressurized Water Reactors. Technical Research Center of Finland Nuclear Engineering Laboratory. Helsinki Finland 2) Chatterjee,B. et al. Brief Description of VVER-1000 Reactor Annals of Nuclear Energy 37,359-370 ( 2010 ) 3) Technical Proposal and Information Materials for NPP of 880 MW Capacity With WWER-440 ATOMENERGOEXPORT-USSR-(1986) 4) Nuclear Reactor Analysis. J.G.Duderstand and J.G.Hamilton John Wiley & Sons (1986) 5) Neutron Physics by Paul Reuss Edn science (paris-france) (2008) 6) Determination of the Neutron Flux in the Reactor Zones with the Strong Neutron Absorption and Leakage V.Ljubenov and M. Milosevic Seberian Journal of Electrical Engineering vol.1 No 3 ,99-112 ( 2004)

7) Roth M.J. The Preparation of Input Data for the Lattice Code WIMS- D4 AEER-538 Rev.7( 1987) 8) CITATION, Nuclear Reactor Core Analysis Code System. T.B. Fowler ,D.R.Vondy and G.W.Cunningham ORNL-TM-2496 Rev 2 ( 1999)

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APPENDICES
Table 1: The Macroscopic Cross Section of the Fuel Assemblies Containing Fuel of 1.6 % Enrichment g 1 2 3 4 D 2.53898 1.02793 0.6947 0.37434 3.897877 10-3 2.555056 10-3 2.280669 10-2 7.072663 10-2 8.906476 10-3 5.454847 10-4 7.180091 10-3 8.307481 10-2 6.424326 10-2 6.102796 10-2 5.345292 10-2

Table 2: The Macroscopic Cross Section of the Fuel Assemblies Containing Fuel of 2.4 % Enrichment g 1 2 3 4 D 2.53962 1.02801 0.69167 0.37266 3.953181 10-3 2.676622 10-3 2.478299 10-2 8.716869 10-2 9.055655 10-3 8.180331 10-4 1.055087 10-2 1.187532 10-1 6.420577 10-2 6.098615 10-2 5.252727 10-2

Table 3: The Macroscopic Cross Section of the Fuel Assemblies Containing Fuel of 3.6 % Enrichment g 1 2 3 4 D 2.540401 1.028077 0.687466 0.369169 4.036106 10-3 2.858819 10-3 2.757706 10-2 1.096883 10-1 9.279389 10-3 1.226533 10-3 1.535437 10-2 1.672795 10-1 6.415063 10-2 6.092352 10-2 5.123709 10-2

Table 4: The Macroscopic Cross Section of the Control and Regulating Assemblies Containing Fuel of 1.6 % Enrichment g 1 2 3 4 D 2.558643 1.072144 0.771685 0.426631 3.566214 10-3 2.311081 10-3 2.221516 10-2 5.967723 10
-2

8.006339 10-3 4.879248 10-4 6.309662 10-3 7.183400 10

-2

6.381855 10-2 5.761677 10-2 5.011338 10-2

Table 5: The Macroscopic Cross Section of the Control and Regulating Assemblies Containing Fuel of 2.4 % Enrichment g 1 2 3 4 D 2.583657 1.080127 0.774493 0.428731 3.578034 10-3 2.418632 10-3 2.381508 10-2 7.346917 10-2 6.813435 10-3 6.125612 10-4 7.753033 10-3 8.532101 10-2 6.223391 10-2 5.618149 10-2 4.807961 10-2

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Maher N. Sarsam & Bashair Mohammed Saied

Table 6: The Macroscopic Cross Section of the Control and Regulating Assemblies Containing Fuel of 3.6 % Enrichment g 1 2 3 4 D 2.598325 1.083557 0.77969 0.429411 3.649742 10-3 2.577586 10-3 2.641661 10-2 9.202017 10-2 8.329583 10-3 1.096012 10-3 1.348928 10-3 1.420148 10-1 6.325709 10-2 5.709760 10-2 4.774550 10-2

Table 7: The Moderator Macroscopic Cross Section g 1 2 3 4 D 3.028337 1.026642 0.728542 0.2413378 3.999129 10-4 2.141653 10-5 2.042154 10-2 3.018336 10-2 8.111930 10-2 1.120832 10-1 1.111342 10-1

Fig.1: The Four Neutron Energy Group Flux Distribution in the Reactor Core

Neutronic Flux and Power Distribution in a Nuclear Power Reactor Using WIMS-D4 and Citation Codes

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Fig.2: Relative Vertical Distribution of the Four Energy Group Flux

Fig.3: Average Relative Power Distribution Across the Reactor Core