The validation of the NODAL3 code for static case of the PWR benchmark cores

The neutron diffusion equation with nodal method has become the standard method in the calculation of neutronic parameters of light water power plant reactor, such as pressurized water (PWR) and boiling water (BWR), since the computation is fast and gives the accurate results. The NODAL3 code has been developed to solve the neutron diffusion equation with polynomial nodal methods (PNM) in 3-dimensional (3-D) geometry. The validation of the NODAL3 code for static cases of the PWR benchmark cores, such as IAEA-2D, BIBLIS, KOEBERG and IAEA-3D, are presented in this research work. The selected benchmark cores correspond to the 2-D and 3-D cases and have different characteristics so can determine the accuracy of the NODAL3 code from the broad neutronic aspect. The calculated static neutronic parameters are the effective multiplication factor, k_eff, the power peaking factor (PPF) and the axial power peaking factor of profile distribution. The NODAL3 calculation results compared to the references shown that the maximum difference of k_eff was 0.006% (Δk). As for the radial and axial maximum PPF, the maximum difference was -0.006 and 0.051, respectively. The calculation results of the 3-D cases of NODAL3 are consistent with the calculation results of the validated nodal codes of PARCS and NESTLE. This research shows that the accuracy of the NODAL3 code in the calculation of static neutronic parameters of the PWR benchmark cores, both the 2-D and 3-D cases very satisfactory results. Therefore, the NODAL3 code is ready to be applied in the neutronic analysis of a real PWR reactor. (author)