Uncertainty analysis for the assembly and core simulation of BEAVRS at the HZP conditions

Based on the “two-step” scheme for the reactor-physics calculations, the capability of uncertainty analysis for the core simulations has been implemented in the UNICORN code, an in-house code for the sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of the reactor-physics calculations. Applying the statistical sampling method, the nuclear-data uncertainties can be propagated to the important predictions of the core simulations. The uncertainties of the few-group constants introduced by the uncertainties of the multigroup microscopic cross sections are quantified first for the lattice calculations; the uncertainties of the few-group constants are then propagated to the core multiplication factor and core power distributions for the core simulations. Up to now, our in-house lattice code NECP-CACTI and the neutron-diffusion solver NECP-VIOLET have been implemented in UNICORN for the steady-state core simulations based on the “two-step” scheme. With NECP-CACTI and NECP-VIOLET, the modeling and simulation of the steady-state BEAVRS benchmark problem at the HZP conditions was performed, and the results were compared with those obtained by CASMO-4E. Based on the modeling and simulation, the UNICORN code has been applied to perform the uncertainty analysis for BAEVRS at HZP. The uncertainty results of the eigenvalues and two-group constants for the lattice calculations and the multiplication factor and the power distributions for the steady-state core simulations are obtained and analyzed in detail.