CASMO5 isotopic comparison to the ARIANE mixed-oxide pressurized water reactor spent fuel measurements

As a part of the validation of the two-dimensional lattice code CASMO5, isotopic predictions from the most recent version are compared to measured actinide and fission products concentrations from mixed-oxide fuel samples taken from irradiated pressurized water reactor fuel assemblies in the ARIANE program. The calculations are performed with a single assembly model, which tracks the detailed fuel assembly specifications and irradiation history. These predictions are compared to post irradiation examination measurements and analyzed. The CASMO5 predicted isotopic compositions agreed with measurements, typically with a difference of 10 % for the most important actinides and fission products. A detailed CASMO5 multi-assembly model indicates that at least some of the results are sensitive to the neighboring assemblies, so the infinite lattice approximation of the single-assembly calculations is introducing a non-negligible error into the comparisons. The quality of the CASMO5 results is demonstrated through comparison to CASMO-4E, as well. (Author)