A Simplified Core Model of the SCWR

Abstract

The Canadian concept of SCWR is a light-water cooled, heavy-water moderated, pressure-tube reactor. The full core of Canadian-SCWR used to be modeled using 20 different axial positions each has its own thermal-hydraulic parameters (like fuel temperature, coolant density, etc.). In this paper the validity of using a lower number of nodes in the full-core model has been assessed. Using fewer nodes will not only reduce the computational time of the diffusion code but also will reduce the total number of transport calculations needed to model a single core configuration. This is very important especially during the design phase of the concept when several different core designs have to be checked to reach an optimal one. It is been found that using only one axial node is sufficient to model the SCWR with an error of only 2% in the exit burnup.