Abstract
This paper summarizes the problem specification and compares participants’ results for the OECD/NEA/WPNCS Expert Group on Burn-up Credit Criticality Safety Phase VII Benchmark—Study of Spent Fuel Compositions for Long-Term Disposal. The Phase VII benchmark was developed to study the ability of relevant computer codes and associated nuclear data to predict spent fuel isotopic compositions and corresponding keff values in a cask configuration over the time duration relevant to spent nuclear fuel (SNF) disposal. The benchmark was divided into two sets of calculations: (1) decay calculations out to 1,000,000 years for provided pressurized-water-reactor (PWR) UO2 discharged fuel compositions and (2) burnup credit criticality calculations for a representative cask model at selected time steps. Contributions from 15 organizations and companies in 10 countries were submitted to the Phase VII benchmark exercise. This paper provides a description of the Phase VII benchmark and detailed comparisons of the participants’ isotopic compositions and keff values that were calculated with a diversity of computer codes and nuclear data sets. Differences observed in the calculated time-dependent nuclide densities are attributed to different decay data or code-specific numerical approximations. The variability of the keff results is consistent with the evaluated uncertainty associated with cross-section data.
