Validation of neutronic models and calculation systems by means of experimental results in the IPEN/MB-01 reactor

In the year 2008 the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) of Argentina, and the Brazilian Institute of Energetic and Nuclear Research (IPEN-CNEN/SP), under the framework of the Nuclear Energy Argentine-Brazilian Agreement (COBEN), among other projects, included “Validation and Verification of Calculation Methods used for Research and Experimental Reactors”. At that time, it was established that the validation was to be performed with models implemented in the deterministic codes HUEMUL and PUMA (respectively, cell and reactor codes) developed by CNEA and those implemented in MCNP5. The necessary benchmark data for these validations would correspond to the theoretical-experimental reference cases elaborated in the research reactor IPEN/MB-01 located in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. These benchmarks were previously evaluated and approved for publications in the ICSBEP and IRPhE handbooks. The staff of the Nuclear Design and Analysis Division of the Reactor and Nuclear Power Plant Study Department (ERC) of CNEA, from the argentine side, modeled and performed several calculations with both deterministic (HUEMUL-PUMA) and probabilistic (MCNP5) methods of a great number of physical situations of the reactor, which previously have been studied experimentally and modeled by members of the Nuclear Engineering Center of IPEN, whose results were extensively provided to CNEA. The analyses reveal the great performances of ENDF/B-VII.0 in conjunction with MCNP5 and the HUEMUL and PUMA codes in all benchmark applications.