COUPLED NEUTRONICS AND THERMAL-HYDRAULIC SOLUTION OF A FULL-CORE PWR USING VERA-CS

The Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) is developing a core simulator called VERA-CS to model operating PWR reactors with high resolution. This paper describes how the development of VERA-CS is being driven by a set of progression benchmark problems that specify the delivery of useful capability in discrete steps. As part of this development, this paper will describe the current capability of VERA-CS to perform a multiphysics simulation of an operating PWR at Hot Full Power (HFP) conditions using a set of existing computer codes coupled together in a novel method. Results for several single-assembly cases are shown that demonstrate coupling for different boron concentrations and power levels. Finally, high-resolution results are shown for a full-core PWR reactor modeled in quarter-symmetry.