Implementation and validation of OpenMC depletion capabilities in SaltProc

No operating molten salt reactors (MSRs) exist, so we must rely on computer simulations to study this technology. Popular MSR designs to use in simulations include the Molten Salt Breeder Reactor (MSBR), the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE), and the Molten Salt Fast Reactor (MSFR). A key process to consider for MSRs is on-line fuel reprocessing and its effect on reactor dynamics. SaltProc is an open source interface code tool that simulates on-line fuel reprocessing when coupled with a depletion-capable transport solver. SaltProc was intended to be usable with any depletion solver, but initially was written with support for Serpent2 exclusively. In this work, the SaltProc codebase was overhauled to simplify coupling to depletion solvers. Support for OpenMC was also added. To ensure that the code maintained existing functionality as well as extended it, the new functionality was validated on a full-core model of the MSBR. The results indicate that keff between OpenMC and Serpent2 differ by +35 pcm at beginning of life and by 700 pcm at the end of the simulation after one year of operation. Additionally, the relative difference of most actinides is less than 2%. The actinides with smaller concentrations in the fuel tend to have larger relative differences between the two codes. The results for fission products are similar, however, the relative differences are smaller, with most of the fission products having a relative difference no greater than 0.6%. There are some outliers in the results with very high relative errors, however, these can be attributed to numerical errors. This is significant as this makes SaltProc the first completely open-source tool to flexibly and accurately simulate on-line fuel reprocessing.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Nuclear, Plasma, Radiolgc Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Yardas, Oleksandr Redin

Contributors dc:contributor

• Munk, Madicken
• Kozlowski, Tomasz

• Openmc
• Molten Salt Reactors
• Depletion

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Oleksandr Redin Yardas

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121954

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F121954