Core calculation of 1MW PUSPATI TRIGA Reactor (RTP) using continuous energy method of Monte Carlo MVP code system

The RTP is a light-water moderated and pool-type TRIGA MARK II reactor with power capacity of 1MWt. It was built in 1979 and attained the first criticality on 28 June 1982. The RTP was designed mainly for neutron activation analysis, small angle neutron scattering, neutron radiography, radioisotope production, education and training purposes. It uses standard TRIGA fuel developed by General Atomic in which the zirconium hydride moderator is homogeneously combined with enriched uranium. It has a cylindrical core with which possibility of locating 127 of fuel elements. Both of the coolant and moderator uses light water system and the reflector is made of high purity graphite. Because of its relatively small power, it uses natural convection for its cooling system. To ensure the integrity of the core, fuel shuffling have been carried out several times. Until now, there were 12 configurations of the core, the most recent change being in July 2006. This paper will describe the RTP core calculation using the Monte Carlo MVP code system. VP is a general multi-purpose Monte Carlo code for neutron and photon transport calculation in order to have an accurate and fast Monte Carlo simulation of neutron and photon transport problems. The MVP Monte Carlo code calculation is based on the continuous energy method. This code is capable of adopting an accurate physics model, geometry description and variance reduction technique. When compared to the conventional scalar method, this code could achieve higher computation speed by up to a factor of 10 on the vector super-computer. The RTP core has been modelled using cylinder geometry along the z-coordinate geometry with the MVP code system while its material cross section data is calculated beforehand. The JENDL3.3 data library was used in the whole calculation. The objectives of the calculation are to calculate the multiplication factor values (keff), fission density and flux distribution from the tally data. The calculation also gives control rod worth value and comparison with experimental data was made to evaluate the safety of the reactor. (author)