Effect of the WIMS nuclear data on the molten salt fuel cell parameters

This paper presents the effects of the WIMS nuclear data, ENDF / B-VI.8 and –VII.1, on the parameters of molten salt reactor fuel cell. This research is the first step for the neutronic design of the small power molten salt reactor. The objective of this research is to determine the effect of WIMS nuclear data on the cell parameters and to be used in the sensitivity analysis of core parameters due to the differences in nuclear data. The calculated cell parameter is the infinite multiplication factor, k-inf. Fuel cell configuration and fuel composition refer to the MSRE (Molten Salt Reactor Experiment) and TMSR500 (ThorCon) reactors, respectively. The study is carried out by using with WIMSD-5B code with the 69 neutron energy groups library. The volume fraction of salt fuel is varied in the range of 0.2 - 0.5. The calculation results show that there is a decrease in the k-inf value when the salt fuel volume fraction is increased, about -3.47 and -3.49 (Δk-inf / Δ fvol) f or E NDF / B-VI.8 and VII.1, respectively. The relative difference between the two nuclear data is also increasing with the increase of the salt fuel volume fraction. This difference is contributed by the U-235 nuclide, especially in the cross-section of neutron production (νΣ_f). The configuration and composition of the selected fuel fulfill the safety criteria. (author)