EDN: SRZLTL
Authors & Affiliations
Kushnir N.O., Grol A.V., Nevinitsa V.A.
National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”, Moscow, Russia
Kushnir N.O. – Research Engineer. Contacts: Contacts: 1, pl. Akademika Kurchatova, Moskow, Russia, 123182. Tel.: +7 (499) 196-94-09; e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Grol A.V. – Deputy Head of Department.
Nevinitsa V.A. – Head of the Department, Cand. Sci. (Tech.).
Abstract
Currently, the design development of modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGR) is intensively underway in the world, which can contribute to solving the problem of electricity generation and high-temperature heat. The distinctive features of this type of reactor make the task of verifying neutron physics codes used in the design of HTGR relevant.
For validation, the authors analyzed a number of experiments carried out on critical configurations of the ASTRA stand modeling the PBMR reactor. A special feature of the PBMR reactor is the use of spherical fuel located in the core in the form of a ball filling as fuel elements. Simplifications in the modeling of pebble bed (the use of a regular lattice when specifying the geometry of the pebble bed) lead to additional methodological uncertainties, which can affect the results of neutron physics calculations.
For a more precise simulation of pebble bed, the Kurchatov Institute has developed a software tool that allows generating stochastic pebble beds for detailed 3d-models of HTGR reactors and critical facilities modeling them, taking into account the laws of physics, the properties of structural materials and reflectors.
This paper demonstrates the operability of the developed software tool, and the models created with its help are used in modeling experiments at the ASTRA critical stand for validation of the neutron-physical MCU-HTR code.
Keywords
pebble bed, ASTRA critical stand, benchmark, calculation method, HTGR, modeling, verification, calculation codes
Article Text (PDF, in Russian)
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UDC 621.039.4
Problems of Atomic Science and Technology. Series: Nuclear and Reactor Constants, 2025, no. 1, 1:11
