Neutronic computational modeling of the ASTRA critical facility using MCNPX

The Pebble Bed Very High Temperature Reactor is considered as a prominent candidate among Generation IV nuclear energy systems. Nevertheless the Pebble Bed Very High Temperature Reactor faces an important challenge due to the insufficient validation of computer codes currently available for use in its design and safety analysis. In this paper a detailed IAEA computational benchmark announced by IAEA-TECDOC-1694 in the framework of the Coordinated Research Project 'Evaluation of High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (HTGR) Performance' was solved in support of the Generation IV computer codes validation effort using MCNPX ver. 2.6e computational code. In the IAEA-TECDOC-1694 were summarized a set of four calculational benchmark problems performed at the ASTRA critical facility. Benchmark problems include criticality experiments, control rod worth measurements and reactivity measurements. The ASTRA Critical Facility at the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow was used to simulate the neutronic behavior of nuclear pebble bed reactors. (Author)