Adaptation of the improved deterministic truncation of Monte Carlo (idtmc) method to the analysis of sodium-cooled fast reactors

Abstract

In this research, the implementation of the iDTMC methodology, which is a methodology for reducing the computing cost of obtaining a high-fidelity Monte Carlo solution by coupling it with a deterministic method, on the iMC Monte Carlo-based neutronics code was extended to accommodate the hexagonal geometry of sodium-cooled fast reactors. This algorithm was then used to perform a neutronics analysis of MOX-1000, a benchmark sodium-cooled fast reactor design. By comparing the results of that analysis with the results of a standard Monte Carlo analysis of the same reactor design, it was found that the iDTMC methodology could predict the pin power distribution of the reactor to within 6% of the Monte Carlo solution and that the neutron multiplication factor converged very quickly to a value within stochastic uncertainties of the Monte Carlo baseline. It may be concluded that the iDTMC methodology can be used to improve the Monte Carlo analysis of sodium-cooled fast reactors.