Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Comprehensive investigation of the Ronen method in slab geometry

  • Roy Gross (The Unit of Nuclear Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) ;
  • Johan Cufe (The Unit of Nuclear Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) ;
  • Daniele Tomatis (Universite Paris-Saclay, CEA, DES, Service d'etudes des reacteurs et de mathematiques appliquees (SERMA)) ;
  • Erez Gilad (The Unit of Nuclear Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
  • Received : 2022.07.16
  • Accepted : 2022.09.24
  • Published : 2023.02.25
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Abstract

A comprehensive investigation of the Ronen method is performed in homogeneous and heterogeneous slab problems from the Sood benchmark, considering isotropic and linearly-anisotropic problems. Three finite differences implementations are exercised and compared. The results are compared to reference solutions using one and two energy groups. The validation is performed for the criticality eigenvalue and the fundamental neutron flux distribution. The results demonstrate the significantly improved accuracy achievable by the Ronen method using a broad set of problems. For standard convergence tolerances, the maximal deviation in criticality eigenvalue is less than ten pcm, and the maximal deviation in the spatial distribution of the flux is less than 2%, always located near sharp interfaces or vacuum boundaries.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

RG thanks the Israel Ministry of Energy for its support as part of the scholarship program for undergraduate and graduate students in energy-related fields, contract no. 219-11-045. JC thanks FRAMATOME for its support as part of a collaboration agreement regarding this research.

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