Assessment of pin-by-pin fission rate distribution within MOX/UO2 fuel assembly using MCNPX code

The aim of the present paper is to assess the calculations of pin-by-pin group integrated fission rates within MOX/UO Fuel assemblies using the Monte Carlo code MCNPX2.7c with two sets of the available latest nuclear data libraries used for calculating MOX-fueled systems. The data that are used in this paper are based on the benchmark by the NEA Nuclear Science Committee (NSC). The k and absorption/fission reaction rates per isotope, k and pin-by-pin group integrated fission rates on 1/8 fraction of the geometry are determined. To assess the overall pin-by-pin fission rate distribution, the collective per cent error measures were investigated. The results of AVG, MRE and RMS error measures were less than 1 % error. The present results are compared with other participants using other Monte Carlo codes and with CEA results that were taken in the benchmark as reference. The results with ENDF/B-VI.6 are close to the results received by MVP (JENDL3.2) and SCALE 4.2 (JEF2.2). The results with ENDF/BVII.1 give higher values of k reflecting the changes in the newer evaluations. In almost all results presented here, the MCNP calculated results with ENDF/B VII.1 should be considered more than those obtained by using other Monte Carlo codes and nuclear data libraries. The present calculations may be consider a reference for evaluating the numerical schemes in production code systems, as well as the global performance including cross-section data reduction methods as the calculations used continuous energy and no geometrical approximations.