Prospects in deterministic three-dimensional whole-core transport calculations

Abstract

The point we made in this paper is that, although detailed and precise three-dimensional (3D) whole-core transport calculations may be obtained in the future with massively parallel computers, they would have an application to only some of the problems of the nuclear industry, more precisely those regarding multiphysics or for methodology validation or nuclear safety calculations. On the other hand, typical design reactor cycle calculations comprising many one-point core calculations can have very strict constraints in computing time and will not directly benefit from the advances in computations in large scale computers. Consequently, in this paper we review some of the deterministic 3D transport methods which in the very near future may have potential for industrial applications and, even with low-order approximations such as a low resolution in energy, might represent an advantage as compared with present industrial methodology, for which one of the main approximations is due to power reconstruction. These methods comprise the response-matrix method and methods based on the two-dimensional (2D) method of characteristics, such as the fusion method.