Calculation of the negative reactivity inserted by the shutdown system number two (SDS2) of a CANDU reactor

The secondary shutdown system (SDS2) of a CANDU reactor consists of liquid poison injection through nozzles disposed horizontally across the core. The nominal concentration of gadolinium nitrate poison is 8000 ppm. With the methods available to the nuclear industry for calculating the negative reactivity inserted by the SDS2, some approximations are needed, and a simplified model of poison propagation has to be used to calculate the differential cross sections. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the errors introduced by the approximations in the supercell and core calculations. The MULTICELL and EXCELL codes gave different power distributions, and further work was recommended. 9 refs., 2 tabs., 4 figs