Analysis of the OECD/NRC Oskarshamn-2 BWR stability benchmark

•The reference solution for Oskarshamn-2 BWR stability benchmark.•Description of TRACE/PARCS modeling of Oskarshamn-2.•Description of FW temperature correction and its effect on the calculated results.•Description of space-time convergence discretization and its effect on the calculated results.

On February 25, 1999, the Oskarshamn-2 NPP experienced a stability event which culminated in diverging power oscillations. The event was successfully modeled by the TRACE/PARCS coupled system code, and further uncertainty analysis of the event is described in this paper. The results show very good agreement with the plant data, capturing the entire behavior of the transient including the onset of instability, growth of the oscillations, and oscillation frequency. This provides confidence in the prediction of other parameters which are not available from the plant records. The event provides coupled code validation for a challenging BWR stability event, which involves the accurate simulation of neutron kinetics (NK), thermal–hydraulics (TH), and TH/NK coupling. The success of this work has demonstrated the ability of the 3-D coupled systems code TRACE/PARCS to capture the complex behavior of BWR stability events. The problem was released as an international OECD/NEA benchmark, and it is the first benchmark based on measured plant data for a stability event with a DR greater than one.