Study on nuclear criticality evaluation method considering nuclear fuel particle dynamics

In conventional criticality safety evaluations of nuclear facilities, the nuclear fuel particle behavior was not considered because any appreciate computational tools were not developed. A new criticality evaluation tool, which can consider the particle dynamics, is developed by coupling the Discrete Element Method with a Monte Carlo type code. This tool is applied to a nuclear criticality evaluation involving the granular flow in a rotating cylindrical tank. Effects of the rotating speed and the particle size distribution on nuclear criticality are investigated in the present study. (author)