Modeling and simulation of The Transient Reactor Test Facility using modern neutron transport methods

Abstract

The Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT) has regained the interest of the nuclear engineering community in recent years. While TREAT's design makes it uniquely suited to transient fuel testing, it also makes the reactor very challenging to model and simulate. In this thesis, we build a Monte Carlo model of TREAT's Minimum Critical Mass core to examine the effects of fuel impurities, calculate a reference solution, and analyze a number of multigroup cross section generation approaches. Several method of characteristics (MOC) simulations employing these cross sections are then converged in space and angle, corrected for homogenization, and compared to the Monte Carlo reference solution. The thesis concludes with recommendations for future analysis of TREAT using MOC.