Methodology Improvement of Reactor Physics Codes for CANDU Channels Analysis

As the operational time increase, pressure tubes and calandria tubes in CANDU core encounter inevitably a geometrical deformation along the tube length. A pressure tube may be sagged downward within a calandria tube by creep from irradiation. This event can bring about a problem that is serious in integrity of pressure tube. A measurement of deflection state of in-service pressure tube is, therefore, very important for the safety of CANDU reactor. In this paper, evaluation of impacts on nuclear characteristic due to fuel channel deformation were aimed in order to improve nuclear design tools for concerning the local effects from abnormal deformations. It was known that sagged pressure tube can cause the eccentric configuration of fuel bundles in pressure tube by O.6cm maximum. In this case, adverse pin power distribution and reactivity balance can affect reactor safety under normal and accidental condition. Thermal and radiation-induced creep in pressure tube would expand a tube size. It was known that maximum expansion may be 5% in volume. In this case, more coolant make more moderation in the deformed channel resulting in the increase of reactivity. Sagging of pressure tube did not cause considerable change in K-inf values. However, expansion of the pressure tube made relatively large change in K-inf. Modeling of eccentric and enlarged configuration is not easy in preparation of input geometry at both HELlOS and MCNP. On the other hand, there is no way to consider this deformation in one-dimensional homogenization tool such as WIMS code. The way of handling this deformation was suggested as the correction method of expansion effect by adjusting the number density of coolant. The number density of heavy water coolant was set to be increased as the rate of expansion increase. This correction was done in the intact channel without changing geometry. It was found that this correction was very effective in the prediction of K-inf values. In this study, further investigation was done in order to check whether this correction may be also effective in nuclear safety parameters such as coolant void reactivity worth, temperature coefficients of fuel, moderator, and coolant. In comparison of CTC between the intact and deformed fuel channels, there was no significant difference. MTC and FTC also showed no significant change. Therefore, it is concluded that the deformation of fuel channels made no significant influence on the values of CTC, MTC, and FTC. Finally, the suggested correction method is found feasible to be applied for reactivity change, k-infinity, coolant void reactivity worth. Therefore correction method is easy to describe the deformed fuel channel in WIMS code