Investigating the Use of 3-D Deterministic Transport for Core Safety Analysis

An LDRD (Laboratory Directed Research and Development) project is underway at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to demonstrate the feasibility of using a three-dimensional multi-group deterministic neutron transport code (Attila®) to perform global (core-wide) criticality, flux and depletion calculations for safety analysis of the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR). This paper discusses the ATR, model development, capabilities of Attila, generation of the cross-section libraries, comparisons to experimental results for Advanced Fuel Cycle (AFC) concepts, and future work planned with Attila