Experimental and operational validation of burn-up calculations for the Syrian MNSR

The calculation of the uranium-235 burn-up in the Syrian Miniature Research Reactor was conducted in this paper using the WIMS-D/4 and CITATION codes. The uranium-235 burn-up was measured experimentally using the measured photoneutron flux in the Be reflector of MNSR subcritical state as well. Good agreements were obtained between the calculated and measured results. The results of the CITATION code were more accurate compared with the results of WIMS-D/4 code. The maximum relative difference between the WIMS-D/4 code and experimental results was 28%, while the maximum relative difference between the CITATION code and measured results was 5%.