Use of gadolinium burnable absorbers in VVER Type Reactors. Validation of WIMS-D/4 code

Burnable absorbers are not used in current operating WWERs, but in order to optimize the fuel cycle and enhance operational safety, one should also introduce gadolinium or a similar burnable absorber in these reactors. For this purpose adequate tools for properly calculating local effects in hexagonal geometries should be developed and validated. The present gives main results in validating the WIMS-D/4 lattice code for Gd burnable absorber bearing WWER lattices. To validate the code experimental and calculational benchmarks proposed in a IAEA Coordinated Research Program were solved. A code system for the optimization of the Gd axial distribution in a WWER reactor was developed and it also presented here. (author)