A new high-fidelity neutronics code NECP-X

• Published in: Annals of nuclear energy 2018-06, Vol.116, p.417-428
• Main Authors: Chen, Jun, Liu, Zhouyu, Zhao, Chen, He, Qingming, Zu, Tiejun, Cao, Liangzhi, Wu, Hongchun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 2D/1D method; High-fidelity; Resonance; Transport approximation; VERA benchmark
• ISSN: 0306-4549; 1873-2100
• DOI: 10.1016/j.anucene.2018.02.049

•A new high-fidelity deterministic neutronics code is developed for the PWR neutronics calculations.•It has its own unique features such as a pseudo-resonant-nuclide subgroup method, a new free-matrix CMFD acceleration method, etc.•The VERA progression problems 1 through 5-2D are used to verify NECP-X.•Numerical results show good accuracy. The high-fidelity reactor physics calculation attracts a lot of attention because of the development of high performance computing technology and increasing requirement of reducing the approximation of traditional methods. Here introduces a new high-fidelity deterministic neutronics code NECP-X being developed at Nuclear Engineering Computational Physics (NECP) lab at Xi’an Jiaotong University. Compared to previous developed codes like DeCART, MPACT and nTRACER, it has its own separate features such as a pseudo-resonant-nuclide subgroup method, a new free-matrix CMFD acceleration method and an axial SN solver for improving accuracy, etc. The VERA progression problems 1 through 5-2D are tested to verify NECP-X, and the numerical results show that NECP-X can obtain accurate results for all of this verification problems.