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Published: 2004

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One favored method being considered for the disposal of surplus weapons grade plutonium (WGPu) is to burn the WGPu as mixed oxide (MOX) fuel in commercial existing Light Water Reactors (LWRs). Duke Power Company intends to irradiate MOX fuel assemblies in their four Westinghouse pressurized water reactors (PWR). The introduction of MOX fuel into LWRs poses several challenges for the reactor physics analysis. The difference in properties of uranium and plutonium induces neutron energy spectrum difference between the MOX and LEU assemblies, which creates a large thermal flux gradient at the interface between these assemblies. Current methods for predicting the intra-nodal flux distribution have difficulty to model this gradient. This study is focused on improving the fidelity of the core simulator utilized in FORMOSA-P to model mixed LEU-MOX cores. In particular, the nature of challenge in regard to accurately model the LEU-MOX interfaces due to both strong spatial variations of the thermal flux and energy spectra, the later impacting the two-group cross section values, will be assessed. The specific focus is on pin-wise power reconstruction; however, issues related to the nodal solution will also be assessed. To complete the work on pin-wise power reconstruction, there are three ways to improve the prediction accuracy, those being to improve the prediction accuracy of the intra-nodal flux shape, improve the prediction accuracy of the intra-nodal kappa-sigma-fission shape, and to introduce group power form factors. However, since the intra-nodal flux and kappa-sigma-fission both are predicted using results obtained from the nodal solution, the prediction accuracy of the nodal solution for mixed LEU-MOX cores enters. This study is completed by using HELIOS, a transport theory based lattice physics code, and NESTLE, a diffusion theory core simulator. The single assembly (SA) calculation is done by HELIOS to generate the homogenized cross sections, discontinuity factors.