Development of Benchmark Experiment Sets Applicable to Thorium-Fueled Power Reactor Bias-Calculations

Abstract

A technique for developing sets of benchmark experiments that are applicable to power reactor bias calculations has been analyzed. A set of potential ZED-2 critical facility experiments was designed such that they could be used in establishing the code biases of three power reactor designs: a CANDU-type reactor with 37-element (Th,Pu)­O₂ fuel bundles, a CANDU-type reactor with 43-element (Th,Pu)­O₂ fuel bundles, and a Canadian supercritical water reactor design. Possible ZED-2 experimental arrangements were modified in order to develop a single set of six potential experiments for which the total relative power reactor sensitivity coverage for each power reactor was 0.7 or greater.