Demonstrative Application to an OECD/NEA Reactor Physics Benchmark of the 2nd-BERRU-PM Method—I: Nominal Computations Consistent with Measurements

This work illustrates the applications of the 2nd-BERRU-PM methodology to polyethylene-reflected plutonium (PERP) OECD/NEA reactor physics benchmark. Using concepts from information theory and thermodynamics, the 2nd-BERRU-PM (2nd-order best-estimate results with reduced uncertainties predictive modeling) methodology is constructed in the most inclusive “joint-phase-space of parameters, computed and measured responses”. Consequently, the 2nd-BERRU-PM methodology simultaneously calibrates responses and parameters, while simultaneously reducing the predicted standard deviations in these quantities. This uncertainty reduction is illustrated for the PERP benchmark, which is modeled using the neutron transport Boltzmann equation, the solution of which is representative of “large-scale computations”. The situations analyzed in this work pertain to values of the measured responses which are consistent with the computed response values, in that the standard deviations of the measured responses overlap with the standard deviations of the computed responses. The situations that can arise when the measured values appear to be inconsistent with the computed values will be analyzed in the accompanying Part II.