Verification of the Monte Carlo code RMC with a whole PWR MOX/UO₂ core benchmark

Several types of V and V work are being carried out for the Reactor Monte Carlo code RMC, including the heterogeneous whole core configurations. In this paper, a whole PWR MOX/UO₂ core benchmark which contains both UO₂ and MOX assemblies with different enrichments and various burn-up points is chosen to verify RMC's criticality calculation capability, and the results of RMC and other codes are discussed and compared, such as eigenvalues, assembly power distributions, pin power distributions and so on. The discrepancies in eigenvalues and power distributions are satisfactory, which proves the accuracy of RMC's criticality calculation. Also, the influences of different cross-section libraries are discussed upon the results of RMC. Besides these results, the detailed comparisons between RMC and MCNP with the same ENDF/B-VII.0 cross-section library are carried out in this paper, including the comparisons of control rod worths calculated by both RMC and MCNP. According to the results, RMC and MCNP agree quite well in eigenvalues, power distributions and other results. The discrepancies of eigenvalues and control rod worth are fairly small and the relative differences of assembly and pin power distributions are acceptable. All these results contribute to the conclusion that the criticality calculation performance of RMC is accurate and excellent. (author)