• Energy Research

Abstract Extensive technical literature exists aimed at establishing the requirements needed to qualify a Nuclear Power Plant model. Most of this literature is focused on qualifying a model for licensing uses. Less documentation is available nowadays on the requirements needed when an Integral Plant Model is used for supporting plant operation and control of an actual commercial facility, while fulfilling its goals of safety and competitiveness. For the last 15 years the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) has been working in this field along with Asociacion Nuclear Asco–Vandellos (ANAV), which is a utility that presently runs three operating PWRs. The paper develops an advanced qualification process (AQP) of plant models for operation support, introduces the concept of plant configuration and explains how this activity complements other usual validation tasks.

The $^{238}$U to $^{235}$U fission cross section ratio has been determined at n_TOF up to $\sim$1 GeV, with two different detection systems, in different geometrical configurations. A total of four datasets have been collected and compared. They are all consistent to each other within the relative systematic uncertainty of 3-4%. The data collected at n_TOF have been suitably combined to yield a unique fission cross section ratio as a function of the neutron energy. The result confirms current evaluations up to 200 MeV. A good agreement is also observed with theoretical calculations based on the INCL++/Gemini++ combination up to the highest measured energy. The n_TOF results may help solving a long-standing discrepancy between the two most important experimental dataset available so far above 20 MeV, while extending the neutron energy range for the first time up to $\sim$1 GeV.

The CERN Neutron Time-Of-Flight (n TOF) facility is well suited to measure small neutron- induced ssion cross sections, as those of subactinides. The cross section ratios of natPb and 209Bi relative to 235U and 238U were measured using PPAC detectors. The fragment coincidence method allows to unambiguously identify the ssion events. The present experiment provides the rst results for neutron-induced ssion up to 1 GeV for natPb and 209Bi. A good agreement with previous experimental data below 200 MeV is shown. The comparison with proton-induced ssion indicates that the limiting regime where neutron-induced and proton-induced ssion reach equal cross section is close to 1 GeV.

The cross section of the reaction 197Au(n,γ ) was measured with the time-of-flight technique at the n TOF (neutron time-of-flight) facility in the unresolved resonance region between 5 and 400 keV using a pair of C6D6 (where D denotes 2H) liquid scintillators for the detection of prompt capture γ rays. The results with a total uncertainty of 3.9%–6.7% for a resolution of 20 bins per energy decade show fair agreement with the Evaluated Nuclear Data File Version B-VII.0 (ENDF/B-VII.0), which contains the standard evaluation. The Maxwellianaveraged cross section (MACS) at 30 keV is in excellent agreement with the one according to the ENDF/B-VII.0 evaluation and 4.7% higher than the MACS measured independently by activation technique. Structures in the cross section, which had also been reported earlier, have been interpreted as being due to clusters of resonances.

Abstract The “First Workshop on Analytical Activities related to the SETH-OECD project” was held in Barcelona at the UPC's Institute of Energy Technologies (INTE), from 2nd to 3rd September 2003. The workshop gave the participants an opportunity to present the main results of the calculations performed as pre- and post-test simulations of SETH experiments. Among all the post-tests that were both presented and discussed, PKL experiment E2.2 holds special interest as it has been widely studied. Test E2.2 examined the most conservative case in terms of the maximum size that condensate slugs can reach and how far boron concentration can drop on resumption of natural circulation following a cold-side SB-LOCA. The analyses were performed by different working groups belonging to different countries and different codes were used. This paper goes deeper into the comparison of results of the different authors. Its aim is to both show and compare the results obtained by different working groups in their simulation of the experiment and to analyse the main parameters involved in order to draw conclusions on improvements that can be made in the analytical approach to such tests. All the participants managed to successfully predict the overall thermal-hydraulic system behaviour. Vessel fill-up together with slug build-up by reflux-condensation are phenomena that were correctly predicted, while simulation of natural circulation restart and transport of low-borated water slugs still need some improvement.