Development and Validated Application of Calculation Function of High Fidelity Refueling Cycle for Pressurized Water Reactor

The refueling cycle calculation function for pressurized water reactor (PWR) is developed on the basis of the self-developed numerical nuclear reactor physics calculation code NECP-X. Startup physics experiments are conducted for the first, second and third cycles of an M310 reactor, and fine modeling calculation is carried out for the first two cycles. By comparing the calculated values with the measured values, it shows that the errors of calculation results of critical boron concentration, control rod worth and temperature coefficient in the startup physics experiments for the first, second and third cycles are relatively small, which meet the acceptance criteria. The results of comparison of the critical boron concentration and core power distribution with the measured values at different burnup levels show that the maximum boron concentration deviation at the stable burnup point is −39ppm (1ppm = 10⁻⁶), and the maximum assembly power error is less than 4.5%. With the increase of burnup level, the core power distribution flattens out and the error decreases gradually. The calculation results show that NECP-X already has the calculation function for the startup physics experiments and multi-fuel cycle of commercial PWRs.