Modeling Decay Heat with a Simplified Depletion Chain in OpenMC

Abstract

OpenMC can be used to computationally model depletion and produce estimates of decay heat. As an input to depletion simulations, OpenMC requires a depletion chain that details nuclide transmutation pathways. The simplified CASL depletion chain was designed to track relatively few nuclides while still accurately modeling the effective neutron multiplication factor and nuclide number densities. However, the CASL chain dramatically underestimates decay heat due to the many nuclides it does not contain. In this work, we modify the CASL depletion chain to improve its accuracy while maintaining its computational efficiency. We demonstrate the effectiveness of adding pseudo-nuclides to the CASL chain, with each pseudo-nuclide capturing the behavior of a large group of nuclides. We further introduce "delay nuclides," which dramatically improve the accuracy of decay heat estimates.

Figures (14)

• Figure 1: \ref{['subfig:The Problem - Operation']} CASL chain underestimates decay heat during operation. \ref{['subfig:The Problem - Post-shutdown']} After shutdown, underestimation persists.
• Figure 2: Total decay heat contribution of nuclides shared between ENDF and CASL in depletion simulations for each of the two chains.
• Figure 3: Nuclides are grouped into ten groups based on decay constant. Each group is represented by a single PN with decay constant $\lambda_{PN}$.
• Figure 4: Process of Adding PNs to CASL Chain
• Figure 5: Adding 10 PNs to the CASL chain improves decay heat estimates both \ref{['subfig:10PNs_Operation']} during operation and \ref{['subfig:10PNs_Post_Shutdown']} post shutdown.