TRISO HTGR/HPMR Unit Cell

[nuclearkevin]

Reason

TRISO-fueled high temperature gas cooled / heat pipe micro reactors have the potential to contain strong gradients in the fission power source due to the discrete placement of TRISO particles (a double-heterogeneity) in fuel compacts. This may pose challenges for AMR strategies, and so a single-physics benchmark problem should be developed to allow for the testing of Monte Carlo adaptive mesh refinement against these geometries.

Design

The model should include:

• A python script which generates OpenMC xml input files for a HTGR/HPMR unit cell (single cooling channel);
• A mesh input file which generates a coarse mesh that accurately represents the underlying CAD geometry without considering the spatial distribution of tallies;
• A OpenMC input file which runs the OpenMC cases and maps the fission heat source and neutron flux to the mesh mirror with a mesh tally.

Impact

Allows for the testing of AMR strategies against HTGR/HPMR geometries.