Modeling of MYRRHA core using SCALE6 for the purpose of the in-core fuel management optimization (ICFMO)

Currently, the advanced nuclear irradiation facility MYRRHA is under development at SCK•CEN. A special effort is being made to develop an in-core fuel management tool. This tool will use the stochastic metaheuristic optimization methods for solving the ICFMO problem which is characterized by the need to examine many feasible core configurations (loading patterns). Since each ICFMO problem requires the examination of a great number of different core loading patterns, something that is typically done by a standard reactor analysis code, it makes the stochastic optimization computationally burdensome. This work investigates the suitability of the use of the current version of SCALE, SCALE6.1, by the ICFMO tool, with function to examine the neutronic characteristics of a very simplified MYRRHA core model, used with purpose to reduce the computational time. This investigation examines the accuracy of the neutronic characteristics of MYRRHA calculated with SCALE6.1 and if the different SCALE6.1 modules’ computational time can be as short as it is required by the strict computational time limits that the stochastic ICFMO imposes