Current developments and future challenges in physics analyses of the NRU heavy water research reactor

The National Research Universal (NRU) reactor is heavy water cooled and moderated, with on-power fueling capability. TRIAD, a 3D two-group diffusion code, is currently used for support of day-to-day NRU operations. Recently, an MCNP full reactor model of NRU has been developed for benchmarking TRIAD. While reactivity changes and flux and power distributions from both methods are in reasonably good agreement, MCNP appears to eliminate a k-eff bias in TRIAD. Beyond TRIAD's capability, MCNP enables the assessment of radiation in the NRU outer structure. Challenges include improving TRIAD accuracy and MCNP performance, as well as performing NRU core-following using MCNP. (author)