SOURCE 1ST 2.0: Development and Beta Testing

Abstract

SOURCE IST 2.0 is the Industry Standard fission product release code that is being developed by Ontario Power Generation. New Brunswick Power, Hydro-Quebec, and Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. This paper is a report on recent progress on requirement specification, code development, and module verification and validation activities. The theoretical basis for each model in the code is described in a module Software Theory Manual. The development of SOURCE IST 2.0 has required code design decisions about how to implement the software requirements. Development and module testing of the p 1 release of SOURCE IST 2.0 (released in July 1999) have led to some interesting insights into fission product release modelling. The beta testing process has allowed code developers and analysts to refine the software requirements for the code. The need to verify physical reference datahas guided some decisions on the code and data structure design. Examples of these design decisions are provided. Module testing, and verification and validation activities are discussed. These activities include code-targeted testing, stress testing, code inspection, comparison of code with requirements, and comparison of code results with independent algebraic, numerical, or semi-algebraic calculations. The list of isotopes to be modelled by SOURCE IST 2.0 provides an example of a subset of a reference data set. Isotopes are present on the list for a variety of reasons: personnel or public dose, equipment dose (for environmental qualification), fission rate and actinide modelling, or stable (or long-lived) targets for activation processes. To accommodate controlled changes to the isotope list, the isotope list and associated nuclear data are contained in a reference data file. The questions of multiple computing platforms, and of Year 2000 compliance have been addressed by programming rules for the code. By developing and testing modules on most of the different platforms on which the code is intended to run, cross-platform issues have been identified prior to the final code release.