Oregon State University is home to a TRIGA® Mark II reactor. In October of 2008, the reactor began operating on low enriched uranium fuel. A model of the facility exists in MCNP, a Monte Carlo code that can be used for criticality calculations. Until now, a bias in the calculation of the neutron multiplication factor has been carried forward from outdated core models.
This work involves updating various aspects of the model, including the geometry of the facility as well as materials and their properties, in order to arrive at a more accurate representation of the facility as it is today. The individual effect that each change has on the results of MCNP calculations of the core is documented.
Following the updates to the model, the model can emulate records that describe the startup of the reactor in October of 2008. The results of these calculations can be compared to actual data in order to establish a foundation for benchmarking the model and characterizing the reactor core. The deviation between calculated and expected results can be used to determine a single reactivity bias in the model.
The bias determined as a result of this work can be applied to future calculations using the model developed as a part of this work. / Graduation date: 2013
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/36139 |
| Date | 05 December 2012 |
| Creators | Kitto, Allyson K. |
| Contributors | Klein, Andrew C. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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