Simulations and Models of Neutron Fluxes in Boiling Water Reactors Intended for Depletion Calculations of Withdrawn Control Rods

Models of the neutron flux shape in a withdrawn control rod in a boiling water reactor (BWR) bottom reflector have been constructed from simulations with the Monte Carlo code MCNP. These neutron flux models are intended for determining absorber depletion and fast fluence accumulation for withdrawn control rods with nodal codes.

So-called G-factors are created for coupling the neutron flux models to a conventional nodal code via the core bottom neutron flux.

The neutron flux models and G-factors are created for three different neutron energies, and their dependence on various parameters such as blanket enrichments, Hf and B4C control rod absorber, and depletion and reflector geometry is investigated.

The neutron flux models and G-factors are found to be very insensitive; the neutron flux models predict the simulated neutron flux in the withdrawn control rod from MCNP over a variety of reflector configurations with an error < 3.0%. This implies that the neutron flux models constructed in this paper are generally applicable for BWR reflectors and control rods not fundamentally deviating from the designs investigated in this paper.