Effect of burnup on the neutronic parameters of ITU TRIGA Mark II research reactor

• Fuel burnup is calculated for ITU TRIGA Mark II Research Reactor using MONTEBURNS2.
• Up-to-date burnup is estimated from operational data of an operation with known conditions.
• Change of core multiplication factor as a function of burnup is presented.
• Neutron spectrum in the core and piercing BP at BOL and EOL is investigated.

This study aims to estimate burnup of the fuel elements for the Istanbul Technical University TRIGA Mark II Research and Training Reactor using a Monte Carlo-based burnup-depletion code. Effect of burnup on the core neutronic parameters, effective core multiplication factor, fast/epithermal/thermal neutron fluxes, and core-average neutron spectrum, and incoming neutron spectrum of the piercing beam port (PBP), is investigated at the Beginning of Life (BOL) and End of Life (EOL). Operational data peculiar to a selected operation sequence, which contains positions of CRs, power level of the reactor, material temperatures and latest core map, are used to determine the current fuel burnup of fuel elements at the time under consideration. A specific operation sequence is selected for the analysis. Furthermore, all control rods are considered fully withdrawn to assess the excess reactivity. Results are obtained using MONTEBURNS2 with ENDFB/V-II.1 neutron/photon library for a full power of 250 kW. Neutron cross-section libraries at the full-power operating temperatures are generated using NJOY. From the results, the calculated burnup values of the core at the sequence considered and EOL are found to be 420 MWh and 560 MWh, respectively. Remaining excess reactivity is calculated to be less than 0.3 $. It is observed that core average thermal neutron flux reduces by 1 % while the fast and epithermal neutron fluxes remain almost unchanged.