Nuclear Engineering and Design 239 (2009) 18281838

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Nuclear Engineering and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/nucengdes

Validation of a new continuous Monte Carlo burnup code using

a Mox fuel assembly
B. El bakkari a, , T. El Bardouni a , O. Merroun a , C. El Younoussi a , Y. Boulaich a ,
H. Boukhal a , E. Chakir b
a
b

ERSN-LMR, Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, POB 2121, Tetuan, Morocco

EPTN-LPMR, Faculty of sciences, Kenitra, Morocco

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 15 December 2008
Received in revised form 21 March 2009
Accepted 2 April 2009

a b s t r a c t
The reactivity of nuclear fuel decreases with irradiation (or burnup) due to the transformation of heavy
nuclides and the formation of ssion products. Burnup credit studies aim at accounting for fuel irradiation
in criticality studies of the nuclear fuel cycle (transport, storage, etc. . .). The principal objective of this
study is to evaluate the potential capabilities of a newly developed burnup code called BUCAL1. BUCAL1
differs in comparison with other burnup codes as it does not use the calculated neutron ux as input to
other computer codes to generate the nuclide inventory for the next time step. Instead, BUCAL1 directly
uses the neutron reaction tally information generated by MCNP for each nuclide of interest to determine
the new nuclides inventory. This allows the full capabilities of MCNP to be incorporated into the calculation
and a more accurate and robust analysis to be performed. Validation of BUCAL1 was processed by code-tocode comparisons using predictions of several codes from the NEA/OCED. Innite multiplication factors
(k ) and important ssion product and actinide concentrations were compared for a MOX core benchmark
exercise. Results of calculations are analysed and discussed.
2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
During the last few years, interest in burnup calculations using
Monte Carlo methods has increased. Previous burnup codes have
used diffusion theory for the neutronic portion of the treatment.
Diffusion theory works well for most reactors. However, it does not
produce accurate results in burnup problems that include strong
neutron absorbers or large voids. Also, diffusion theory codes are
geometry-limited (rectangular, hexagonal, cylindrical, and spherical coordinates). Monte Carlo methods are ideal to solve problems
with heterogeneous reactors and/or lattices/assemblies in which
considerable burnable poisons are used. The key feature of this
approach is that Monte Carlo methods permit essentially exact
modelling of all geometrical details, without resort to energy and
spatial averaging of neutron cross sections. Several codes, or combinations of codes, have been developed to perform Monte Carlo
depletion analysis. Basically, these codes were developed with the
idea of solving the burnup problem for unit cell and/or fuel assemblies/lattices. These codes use the calculated neutron ux generated
by the Monte Carlo codes as input to generate the nuclides inventory
at next time step.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +212 51235092; fax: +212 39994500.

E-mail address: bakkari@gmail.com (B. El bakkari).
0029-5493/$ see front matter 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.nucengdes.2009.04.015

In burnup calculations, the highest delity approach uses neutron absorption and ssion reaction information generated via
neutronics codes to determine the material composition at a
desired time step. This kind of model allows the integration of all
the neutron ux information into the calculation without postprocessing and additional manipulation of the neutron ux and
cross sections set (Parma, 2002). Neutron absorption and ssion
reaction data for individual nuclide are available as output from the
Monte Carlo codes like MCNP through the use of Tallies. The only
requirement is that a pointwise energy-dependent cross section set
is available for each nuclide of interest at the required temperature.
This paper presents a new elaborated burnup code called
BUCAL1. The code was developed to incorporate the neutron
absorption and ssion reaction tally information generated directly
by MCNP5 (X-5 Monte Carlo Team, 2003) in the calculation of
ssioned or neutron transmuted isotopes for different regions of
reactor. Using the MCNP tally information directly in the computation allows most of data to be used in the analysis. Also, using MCNP
and continuous-energy cross sections allow neutron cross section
manipulations to be avoided. Accomplishing this goal would permit
straightforward and accurate calculations to be performed without having to use calculated group uxes to perform transmutation
analysis in a separate code.
The validation of BUCAL1 was performed by code-to-code comparisons. Results of several codes from NEA/OCED were used in

B. El bakkari et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Design 239 (2009) 18281838

these comparisons. The present study is focused on the analysis of a

MOX core benchmark exercise. In MCNP calculations, we have used
the ENDF/B-VII (Chadwick et al., 2006) evaluated neutron reaction
data recently released from the Brookhaven national laboratory.
The processing of the ENDF/B-VII evaluation into library suitable
for use with the MCNP code was done using the modular system
NJOY99 (MacFarlane, 2002) with its latest update patch up259.

where

hi = t i t i1

Ka,j = hi fj (t i1 , N1i1 , N2i1 , ..., Nji1 , ..., Nni1 )

K
K
hi

Ka,j
Ka,n
a,1
a,2
, N1i1 +
, N2i1 +
, ..., Nji1 +
)
, ..., Nni1 +
2
2
2
2
2

Kb,j
Kb,1
Kb,2
Kb,n
h

, N2i1 +
, ..., Nji1 +
, ..., Nni1 +
)
Kc,j = hi fj (t i1 + , N1i1 +

2
2
2
2
2

Kd,j = hi fj (t i1 + hi , N1i1 + Kc,1 , N2i1 + Kc,2 , ..., NJi1 + Kc,j , ..., Nni1 + Kc,n )
Kb,j = hi fj (t i1 +

(4)

2. Mathematical model
2.1. Overview
In routine reactor design burnup calculations, the key objective
is to determine the time dependent fuel material composition as
well as the eigenvalues as a function of burnup. Two basic mechanisms of fuel depletion are under consideration: (i) various nuclear
reactions such as nuclear ssions, neutron captures, etc. . . and
(ii) the decay of radioactive isotopes. Once material compositions
are known, eigenvalues can be calculated efciently using MCNP
code for specied geometry. Mathematically, the material balance
process can be described at any time by the following depletion
equation:
dNi
=
dt

ji f,i Nj  +

c,ki Nk 

li Nl (f,i Ni  + a,i Ni  + i Ni )

(1)

where dNi /dt is the change rate in concentration of isotope i,



ji f,i Nj  is the production rate per unit volume of isotope i

from
ssion of all ssionable nuclides,


c,ki Nk  is the production rate per unit volume of isotope i

from neutron
 transmutation of all isotopes including (n, ), (n, 2n),
etc. . .,

1829

li Nl is the production rate per unit volume of isotope i

from decay of all isotopes including , + , ,  decay, etc. . .,  f,i Ni 

is the removal rate per unit volume of isotope i by ssion,  a,i Ni  is
the removal rate per unit volume of isotope i by neutron absorption
(excluding ssion), i Ni is the removal rate per unit of isotope i by
decay.
Eq. (1) can also be written in a compact vector form:
dNi (t)
= Ai (t)Ni (t)
dt

(2)

where the matrix A is called the transition matrix.

The depletion algorithm of BUCAL1 assumes that the ux spectrum of reactor is constant during the entire burnup step. This
assumption, however, may not be completely fullled if one uses
too large burnup steps since the spectrum of a reactor changes
during such steps. Hence, the reaction rates and the power distribution calculated at the beginning of the step may not adequately
account for the changes during the entire burnup step. In this case,
BUCAL1 uses a more accurate approach for the depletion calculation known as the predictor-corrector depletion approach. This
approach involves the following multistep process:
A burnup calculation is completed in BUCAL1 to the nal time
step [ti tf ] (predictor step).
Fluxes and reaction rates are recalculated in a steady-state MCNP
calculation at the nal time step tf .
Then the recalculated uxes and reaction rates are used to burn
over the full time step [ti tf ] (corrector step).
The average atom densities from these two calculations are taken
as the end-of-time step material compositions.
This approach is usually an acceptable approximation. Implementing this approach in the calculations allows the user to burn
a system using fewer burnup steps than if no approximation were
made on the average ux behavior.
Note that to take into account of Xe-135 and Sm-149 build-ups,
it is highly recommended to use smaller time steps for the rst few
iterations, to ensure that the reactivity effects of these two important ssion products are incorporated into the burnup calculations.
2.3. Total reaction rate calculation
Various reaction rates and the one-group ux in each individual
active cell are provided by MCNP ux tallies as:


=
i (E)dE
i


Rijk = kj (E)i (E)dE

(5)

2.2. Solution technique

The majority of burnup codes used by the nuclear community
use the matrix exponential method to solve the depletion equation in its compact vector form (2). In our burnup code BUCAL1 we
propose a solution technique based on the fourth order Rung Kutta
method. Using this method, the solution of Eq. (1) can be transformed into a system of linear Eqs. (3) and (4) that are easy and fast
to solve.

i
N1 = N1i1 + 16 (Ka,1 + 2Kb,1 + 2Kc,1 + Kd,1 )

N i = N i1 + 1 (K + 2K + 2K + K )
2

...

a,2

b,2

c,2

d,2

Nn = Nni1 + 16 (Ka,n + 2Kb,n + 2Kc,n + Kd,n )

(3)

where is the k (E) is the microscopic cross section of reaction type

k for isotope j, i (E) is the one group averaged ux in cell i, Rijk is
the one group averaged reaction rate of type k with nuclide j in cell
i.
These tallies in MCNP come from track length estimation of cell
ux and reaction rates (tally F4 in MCNP).
In the current version of BUCAL1, the two groups of nuclides
under consideration are:
1. actinides (ACT) that contain heavy metal nuclides with atomic
number Z 90 and their decay daughters;
2. ssion products (FP) produced by ssions and their
decay/capture daughters.
Specically, the calculated reaction rates of ssion products and
actinides are shown on Table 1. Only the neutron capture cross sec-

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B. El bakkari et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Design 239 (2009) 18281838

Table 1
MCNP-tallied reactions used in BUCAL1.
Reaction type

MCNP reaction identier

Actinides

(n, )
(n, f)
(n, 2n)
(n, 3n)

102
6
16
17

Fission products

(n, )

102

tion is considered for ssion products since neutron absorption

by ssion products is primarily via (n, ) reaction. For actinides,
four types of reactions are considered including capture, ssion, (n,
2n) and (n, 3n) because they lead to the production of signicant
quantities of ssion products and higher-mass actinides.
Note that it is not practical to calculate MCNP reaction rates for
all nuclides in BUCAL1 (910 nuclides) due to the excessive CPU
time needed and the unavailability of many library cross sections.

Fig. 1. Simplied ow diagram of BUCAL1.

B. El bakkari et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Design 239 (2009) 18281838

1831

Only a limited set of important ones (e.g., strong neutron absorption

contributors), typically 45 actinides and 102 ssion products are
considered in MCNP calculations.
For the less capturing nuclides, BUCAL1 uses the approximative
model based on Eq. (6), to take into account their capture reaction
rates (Dat, 1996):

ic 

= M

c
i,2200


4

293
+ rIi
T

(6)

where ic  is the microscopic averaged capture rate of isotope i, M

c
is the Maxwellien ux, i,2200
is the thermal neutron capture cross
section of isotope i at 293 K, T is the temperature of neutrons, r is
the ratio of epithermal ux per unit of lethargy by the Maxwellien
thermal ux, Ii is the resonance integral capture cross section on
isotope i.
Normally, the use of 102 ssion products and 45 actinides are
enough sufcient to account for most of reactivity and hence the
k (Xu, 2003), but the treatment of minor ssion products through
Eq. (6) was included in BUCAL1 algorithm because the concentrations of these minor ssion products can affect the concentrations
of major ssion products in high burnup values. So, the use of this
approximation was in the aim to enlarge the domain of utilisation
of BUCAL1.
2.4. Flux normalization parameters
MCNP generates reaction rates for BUCAL1 depletion calculation.
These generated reaction rates are normalized to one ssionsource-neutron, which need to be multiplied by a constant factor
to take into account the entire reactor power. The typical way of
calculating this constant factor (CF) as recommended in the MCNP
manual (X-5 Monte Carlo Team, 2003) is:
CF =

P 
QKeff

(7)

where P is the total power of the entire system (Watts),  is the average number of ssion neutrons per ssion event, Q is the average
recoverable energy per ssion event (J/ssion), Keff is the eigenvalue
of the system.
MCNP calculates the system-averaged  and Q values. The power
level used for the constant factor is the total power of the system and it is a user input. The Q value used in the calculation is
an estimation of the recoverable energy per ssion event. BUCAL1
uses the prompt recoverable energy per ssion (Q-prompt) multiplied by a constant normalization factor 1.111 recommended by the
MCNPX-2.6 developers (Hendrichs and Mckinney, 2007). This constant normalization factor is an estimation of the delayed ssion
energy and capture gamma energy contribution.
Fig. 1 gives the simplied ow diagram of BUCAL1 burnup code.

Fig. 2. Flow diagram of NJOY99 processing for ACE format library construction.

compositions, 620 K for cladding and 575 K for coolant and moderator. For the S(, ) thermal scattering treatment, we have used the
standard libraries distributed in the MCNP5 package, based on the
ENDF/B-VI.8 evaluation.
4. Benchmark specications
The benchmark exercise used for this study is a MOX lattice
core, with reective boundary conditions. The benchmark geometry adopted, is a square 17 17 PWR fuel pin assembly with three
enrichment zones as shown in Fig. 3. The initial MOX fuel enrichments for these zones are shown in Tables 25.
The 24 guide tubes and one instrument tube were modelled as
water-lled zircaloy tubes with the following dimensions.
- Outer radius = 0.613 cm.
Table 2
Plutonium isotopic compositions in fresh MOX
fuel.
w/o in Putotal

238

2.5
54.7
26.1
9.5
7.2

Pu
239
Pu
240
Pu
241
Pu
242
Pu

Table 3
Uranium isotopic compositions in fresh MOX fuel.

3. Library generation
The NJOY99 code (MacFarlane, 2002) updated to its more recent
patch le up259 has been used to process the evaluated nuclear
data les into libraries suitable for use with MCNP. Fig. 2 shows the
procedures used to generate the ACE format library through NJOY
processing system. The probability tables for considering the selfshielding effects in the unresolved energy range can be used in the
MCNP5. These tables were generated using the PURR module of
NJOY and introduced into the MCNP libraries.
For our benchmark calculations, we restricted our interest to
ENDF/B-VII (Chadwick et al., 2006) evaluated neutron reaction data
released from the Brookhaven National Laboratory. This library was
prepared at the required benchmark temperatures: 900 K for fuel

Nuclide

Nuclide

w/o in Utotal

234

0.00119
0.25000
99.74881

235
238

U
U
U

Table 4
Initial MOX fuel enrichments.
MOX fuel enrichment
zones

MOX fuel plutonium

w/o Putotal /[U + Pu]

MOX fuel enrichment,

w/o Pussile /[U + Pu]

High
Medium
Low
Average

8.866
6.206
4.894
8.000

5.692
3.984
3.142
5.136

1832

B. El bakkari et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Design 239 (2009) 18281838

Fig. 3. The MOX core geometry.

Table 5
Initial MOX fuel compositions.
Nuclide

234

U
U
238
U
238
Pu
239
Pu
240
Pu
241
Pu
242
Pu
O
235

5. Results and discussion

Atoms/barn cm for given fuel pin (at 900 K)

High

Medium

Low

2.5718E7
5.3598E5
2.1194E2
5.1677E5
1.1259E3
5.3500E4
1.9392E4
1.4636E4
4.6602E2

2.6436E7
5.5300E5
2.1786E2
3.6128E5
7.8717E4
3.7403E4
1.3557E4
1.0233E4
4.6553E2

2.6789E7
5.6040E5
2.2077E2
2.8473E5
6.2038E4
2.9478E4
1.0685E4
8.0644E5
4.6529E2

- Inner radius = 0.571 cm.

- Wall thickness = 0.042 cm.

One of the main features of BUCAL1 is its ability to do pin-by-pin

burnup calculations even for core lattices with big number of fuel
elements.
Fig. 4 represents the power card of the MOX fuel assembly used
in this study, the sum of all power fractions is 100%, which mean the
total power of the system. From this gure, one can remark that the
power fractions corresponding to each of the three enriched zones
vary slightly versus pin locations. Based on this gure, and because
of the computer time constraint, burnup calculations with BUCAL1
were done using just three different pin cells that correspond to the
three different enriched zones. The underlined values on the gure
represent the three burned pin cells; these locations were chosen
calculating the average power fraction values corresponding to each
of the three enriched zones. The average number density for each
isotope was calculated using Eq. (8):

The non-ssile materials are as follows:

- Cladding = zircaloy-2.
- Guide tubes/instrument = zircaloy-2.
- Coolant/moderator = light water, 600 ppm boron.
For the purpose of the benchmark exercise, these materials were
modelled as specied in Table 6.
Table 6
Non-ssile material compositions.
Nuclide

i =
N

3


vfj Nij

(8)

j=1

where vfj is the volume fraction of the enriched zone j, and Nij
is the nuclide density of isotope i corresponding to the enriched
zone i.
In order to obtain an efcient comparison of results, the calculations were performed to obtain a constant target burnup for
the MOX fuel assembly of 48 GWd/teHM. The MOX fuel assembly is
irradiated over three operating cycles, as shown below.

Atoms/barn cm
3

Zircaloy-2 (5.8736 g/cm ) (at 620 K)

Zr
3.8657E2
Fe
1.3345E4
Cr
6.8254E5
Coolant/moderator (600 ppm boron,
0.7245 g/cm3 ) (at 575 K)
H
4.8414E2
O
2.4213E2
10
B
4.7896E6
11
B
1.9424E5

Cycle 1 = 420 days full power, end of cycle (EOC) burnup of MOX
=16 GWd/teHM.
First downtime = 30 days.
Cycle
2 = 420
days
full
power,
EOC
burnup
of
MOX = 32 GWd/teHM.
Second downtime = 30 days.
Cycle
3 = 420
days
full
power,
EOC
burnup
of
MOX = 48 GWd/teHM.
Cooling = 0 years, 5 years.

B. El bakkari et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Design 239 (2009) 18281838

1833

Fig. 4. Power card of the MOX fuel assembly.

The results of calculations concerning the innite multiplication

factor (k ) provided by all compared codes are given in Table 7.
The atom number densities obtained by BUCAL1 are presented in
Table 13. Results obtained by other codes can be found in the OECD
publication (OConnor, 2003). Atom density predictions of some ssion products and actinides are not allowed by some codes such as
CASLIB, MVP-BURN, and SAS2D. The atom densities of important
ssion products and actinides used in our code validation are not
provided by SAS2D code for cooling time of 5 years. The average
(Ave) and standard deviation (SD) values are dened as follow:
1
Ni
I
I

Ave =

(9)

i=1



I
1 
SD = 
(Ni Ave)2
I1

(10)

i=1

Here Ni is the atomic number density or other parameter of interest calculated using the code i (where the total number of codes
used is denoted by I).
5.1. Innite multiplication factor and reactivity change due to
burnup and cooling
Based on the calculation results obtained by different codes,
the average (mean) values of innite multiplication factor (k ) and
their standard deviations and the reactivity change due to burnup
and cooling are summarized in Tables 7 and 8, respectively.
Table 7 shows that, at the end of cycle 3, the minimum and
maximum k values obtained are 0.94752 (KENOREST-2001) and
0.96610 (SAS2D), respectively, and their corresponding relative
deviation to the mean value are 0.79% and 1.16%. Therefore, the
spread between the minimum and maximum values of k at the
end of cycle 3 is around 2%. The standard deviation increases as a
function of burnup by 0.16% while passing from EOC1 to EOC2 and
from EOC2 to EOC3 and by 0.1% after 5 years cooling (decay).

Table 7
k change due to burnup and cooling.
Codes

CASLIB
APOLLO2/PEPIN2
KENOREST-2001
BOXER/ETOBOX
WIMS8A
MVP-BURN
SAS2D
BUCAL1
Average
Standard deviation
Standard deviation (%)
Ave + SD
Ave SD
Minimum
Maximum

Relative difference in k (%)

EOC1

EOC2

EOC3

5 years cooling

1.05978
1.05624
1.05910
1.06088
1.04976
1.05541
1.06270
1.06006
1.05799
0.00382
0.38000
1.06181
1.05417
1.04976
1.06270

1.00753
0.99968
0.99909
1.00618
0.99654
0.99749
1.01170
1.00616
1.00305
0.00518
0.51806
1.00823
0.99787
0.99654
1.01170

0.96100
0.94869
0.94752
0.95837
0.94974
0.95292
0.96610
0.95989
0.95553
0.00632
0.63249
0.96185
0.94920
0.94752
0.96610

0.91857
0.90715
0.90325
0.91826
0.90409
0.91676
No data
0.92143
0.91254
0.00710
0.70985
0.91964
0.90544
0.90325
0.92143

EOC1
0.17
0.17
0.10
0.27
0.78
0.24
0.45
0.20

EOC2
0.45
0.34
0.39
0.31
0.65
0.55
0.86
0.31

EOC3

5 years cooling

0.57
0.72
0.84
0.30
0.61
0.27
1.11
0.46

0.66
0.59
1.02
0.63
0.93
0.46
No data
0.97

1834

B. El bakkari et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Design 239 (2009) 18281838

Table 8
Reactivity change due to burnup and cooling.
Codes

Reactivity change (%)

Relative difference in reactivity change (%)

EOC1 EOC2

EOC2 EOC3

5 years cooling

Total

EOC1 EOC2

EOC2 EOC3

5 years cooling

Total

CASLIB
APOLLO2/PEPIN2
KENOREST-2001
BOXER/ETOBOX
WIMS8A
MVP-BURN
SAS2D
BUCAL1
Average
Standard deviation
Standard deviation (%)
Ave + SD
Ave SD
Minimum
Maximum

4.89
5.36
5.67
5.12
5.09
5.50
4.74
5.05
5.2
0.29
29.1
4.89
5.47
5.67
4.74

4.81
5.38
5.45
4.96
4.95
4.69
4.67
4.79
5.0
0.28
27.9
4.68
5.24
5.45
4.67

4.81
4.83
5.17
4.56
5.32
4.14
No data
4.35
4.7
0.39
39.3
4.35
5.13
5.32
4.14

14.51
15.56
16.29
14.64
15.35
14.33
No data
14.19
15.0
0.71
71.5
14.27
15.70
16.29
14.19

5.5%
3.4%
9.5%
1.1%
1.8%
6.2%
8.4%
2.4%

3.1%
8.4%
9.8%
0.0%
0.3%
5.5%
5.9%
3.4%

1.4%
1.9%
9.2%
3.8%
12.2%
12.6%
No data
8.2%

3.2%
3.9%
8.7%
2.3%
2.5%
4.3%
No data
5.3%

The k values at the end of three cycles and after 5 years cooling
obtained using our new elaborated code BUCAL1 are generally in
good agreement with the mean values and the results of the compared codes. After 5 years cooling, BUCAL1 produces the maximum
k value between codes 0.921430, with a relative deviation to mean
value about 1%.
Besides the k values, there is a strong incentive to investigate
the differences on the reactivity changes due to burnup and cooling.
It is expected that the effect of different parameters (effective cross
sections, half-lives, branching ratios and burnup chains) used in
the burnup and cooling calculations would be reected by these
reactivity changes.
Based on Table 8, the reactivity swings due to burnup during
cycle 3 show minimum and maximum values of 5.6% (MONK8A)
and 4.7% (MVP-BURN and SAS2D) respectively. Their relative
deviations to the mean value are 7.3% and 11.5% respectively.
The reactivity changes due to the 5 years cooling show minimum
and maximum values of 5.3% (WIMS8A) and 4.1% (MVP-BURN)
respectively. The corresponding relative deviations to the mean
value are 12.4% and 12.5%, respectively. The reactivity changes due
to burnup and ve years cooling obtained using BUCAL1 are 5.1%,
4.8%, and 4.3%, respectively; that give a total reactivity value of
14.2%, which is the maximum value of all codes.

8594 pcm, which is due to an augmentation of about 5% in the EP

factor value. The rst downtime produces an excess of reactivity of
1292 pcm and a decrease in the EP factor of 0.88%. At the end of
the second cycle the total loss of reactivity produced is 6295 pcm
and the corresponding EP factor is increased to 7.42%. The second
downtime leads to an excess of reactivity equal to 1491 pcm and
a decrease of 0.97% in the EP factor value. At the end of the last
cycle the obtained loss in reactivity is approximately 6000 pcm,
however, the absorption effect due to ssion products increases to
9.57%.
5.3. Actinide and ssion products nuclide densities
The relative deviations of actinide and ssion product nuclide
densities to the mean value obtained by different codes at the end
of cycle 13 and after 5 years cooling are compared on Tables 912.
At EOC1 (Table 9), for uranium and plutonium isotopes, all the
compared codes produce roughly very similar results. The maximum value is obtained by SAS2D for U-236 isotope (3.35%). The
relative deviations to mean values obtained using BUCAL1 (for
uranium and plutonium isotopes) are lower than 1%. The relative
deviations to mean values obtained by the codes for Np-237, Am242M, Cm-244, and Cm-245 isotopes are within the range of 30%.

5.2. Total irradiation history

The captures by ssion products modify the total macroscopique
absorption reaction rate Raf of fuel.
In order to study the effect of ssion products on k values, we
dene the poisoning factor (EP) as their contribution to the total
macroscopique absorption reaction rate Raf .
EP =

RPF
Raf

(11)

where RPF designs the total macroscopique absorption reaction rate

of ssion products.
Fig. 5 shows the total irradiation history obtained using BUCAL1
(left axis), and the evolution of the EP (%) factor (right axis) for the
17 17 PWR MOX fuel assembly used in this study. At the end of
each cycle the eigenvalues obtained by the other codes are shown
and compared to our values.
The loss in reactivity due to the 135 Xe and 149 Sm equilibrium is
about 1711 pcm. This loss is accompanied by an increase of 1.3%
in the EP factor value where the 135 Xe and 149 Sm ssion products
participate in this increase by 81% and 8%, respectively. The remaining fraction of the increase observed in the EP factor is due to other
ssion products. The total loss in reactivity during the rst cycle is

Fig. 5. Burnup history for the 17 17 PWR MOX fuel assembly obtained using
BUCAL1 burnup code.

B. El bakkari et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Design 239 (2009) 18281838

1835

Table 9
Relative difference of nuclide densities at EOC1.
Cycle1

CASLIB

APOLLO2/PEPIN2

KENOREST-2001

BOXER/ETOBOX

WIMS8A

MVP-BURN

SAS2D

BUCAL1

U-234
U-235
U-236
U-238
Pu-238
Pu-239
Pu-240
Pu-241
Pu-242
Np-237
Am-241
Am-242M
Am-243
Cm-242
Cm-243
Cm-244
Cm-245
Mo-95
Tc-99
Ru-101
Rh-103
Ag-109
Cs-133
Nd-143
Nd-145
Sm-147
Sm-149
Sm-150
Sm-151
Sm-152
Eu-153
Gd-155

0.675
0.162
0.738
0.001
0.997
0.397
0.261
0.446
2.262
9.618
0.899
9.899
8.405
5.792
3.469
25.068
25.824
No data
No data
No data
1.061
11.454
1.665
6.660
1.373
3.526
8.676
3.666
7.126
2.756
4.080
61.094

0.320
0.083
0.611
0.015
0.118
0.028
0.056
0.354
0.676
10.972
0.639
7.174
1.821
3.280
3.262
6.555
12.639
6.469
0.152
3.104
1.131
0.356
0.028
0.320
1.581
0.457
2.925
0.329
1.609
2.878
2.543
21.035

0.512
0.322
1.535
0.001
0.478
1.284
1.665
1.108
0.446
5.035
3.791
17.350
1.727
0.557
4.909
1.358
12.184
6.580
5.037
1.252
1.890
12.974
1.256
0.335
0.893
0.559
0.437
0.989
2.282
8.778
5.352
8.075

0.335
0.226
0.711
0.011
0.389
0.418
0.037
0.607
0.119
20.785
0.431
27.796
1.013
5.662
6.072
3.517
4.246
39.506
0.903
2.192
1.397
0.501
0.236
0.417
1.264
0.556
1.608
1.771
5.920
1.303
2.580
22.024

0.885
0.145
1.906
0.025
0.210
0.667
0.842
0.924
0.029
18.769
0.163
17.801
2.620
6.644
7.197
4.106
10.572
6.493
0.860
2.464
1.220
0.102
0.007
0.040
1.255
0.194
3.457
1.260
1.321
1.819
1.484
23.407

0.375
0.100
1.622
0.004
0.154
0.094
0.391
1.149
0.312
14.152
1.494
7.650
0.385
3.557
7.290
3.640
14.161
No data
1.215
2.169
11.572
No data
3.088
0.057
0.778
No data
2.799
1.305
1.840
0.070
0.123
43.502

0.928
0.299
3.351
0.001
0.318
0.227
0.129
0.418
0.001
No data
0.086
17.619
7.124
4.097
15.957
11.213
1.486
7.607
0.885
3.220
3.270
9.174
0.041
1.336
0.694
1.156
4.706
5.390
6.138
4.125
1.126
57.788

0.911
0.848
0.721
0.050
0.274
0.303
0.207
0.031
0.738
18.527
1.529
20.240
1.751
2.956
11.615
1.713
3.397
12.357
5.172
1.119
3.724
10.941
2.520
4.905
3.703
4.136
5.371
6.945
4.857
5.361
4.333
34.345

KENOREST-2001

BOXER/ETOBOX

WIMS8A

MVP-BURN

SAS2D

BUCAL1

0.440
0.626
0.826
0.022
0.503
0.538
0.023
0.616
0.336
20.042
0.360
28.230
0.411
5.134
6.528
2.692
1.483
17.421
0.663
2.530
1.260
2.064
0.282
0.057
1.701
1.458
0.420
2.844
10.737
3.943
1.415
16.933

1.822
0.213
1.465
0.051
0.598
1.414
1.457
1.127
0.132
17.828
0.065
18.622
3.604
6.163
7.064
3.221
9.725
1.574
0.922
2.768
0.946
1.234
0.189
0.386
1.444
0.207
3.228
2.355
0.309
2.182
1.981
12.539

1.099
0.029
1.215
0.002
0.611
0.249
0.890
1.930
0.573
12.057
3.009
4.442
0.364
1.895
3.378
3.619
16.500
No data
1.401
1.650
5.449
No data
2.887
0.481
1.637
No data
3.506
1.063
6.159
0.885
0.340
40.137

1.889
0.657
3.337
0.055
0.969
0.603
0.074
0.488
0.097
No data
0.096
11.955
7.065
4.738
12.500
10.558
8.285
3.008
0.570
3.161
1.443
6.723
0.830
1.025
0.534
1.044
8.258
8.686
10.048
2.713
1.555
54.926

2.601
2.756
1.502
0.149
1.097
1.205
0.450
0.250
1.766
15.166
3.423
16.176
0.111
3.758
11.680
2.959
2.309
9.449
7.047
2.807
3.063
9.731
3.759
5.975
5.139
3.629
6.285
8.859
7.772
7.408
6.776
35.696

Table 10
Relative difference of nuclide densities at EOC2.
Cycle2

CASLIB

APOLLO2/PEPIN2

U-234
U-235
U-236
U-238
Pu-238
Pu-239
Pu-240
Pu-241
Pu-242
Np-237
Am-241
Am-242M
Am-243
Cm-242
Cm-243
Cm-244
Cm-245
Mo-95
Tc-99
Ru-101
Rh-103
Ag-109
Cs-133
Nd-143
Nd-145
Sm-147
Sm-149
Sm-150
Sm-151
Sm-152
Eu-153
Gd-155

0.419
0.568
0.941
0.007
1.625
1.324
0.779
0.574
4.578
7.795
0.295
9.934
5.507
6.905
3.294
21.400
22.650
No data
No data
No data
3.430
13.996
1.968
5.049
2.131
1.466
7.719
4.089
9.447
4.198
5.077
63.642

0.394
0.232
0.349
0.022
0.288
0.162
0.064
0.939
1.251
9.820
1.735
9.008
1.028
2.871
3.342
6.042
12.103
1.512
0.470
3.398
1.132
0.717
0.399
0.217
1.857
0.576
2.844
1.111
0.053
3.354
3.307
15.372

1.020
0.916
1.309
0.008
0.720
2.523
2.642
1.339
0.881
3.298
5.383
17.997
1.681
0.414
4.615
3.611
8.219
1.878
5.488
1.078
0.850
12.988
1.139
0.924
1.164
0.966
0.534
2.231
4.916
13.612
3.109
22.272

1836

B. El bakkari et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Design 239 (2009) 18281838

Table 11
Relative difference of nuclide densities at EOC3.
Cycle3

CASLIB

APOLLO2/PEPIN2

KENOREST-2001

BOXER/ETOBOX

WIMS8A

MVP-BURN

SAS2D

BUCAL1

U-234
U-235
U-236
U-238
Pu-238
Pu-239
Pu-240
Pu-241
Pu-242
Np-237
Am-241
Am-242M
Am-243
Cm-242
Cm-243
Cm-244
Cm-245
Mo-95
Tc-99
Ru-101
Rh-103
Ag-109
Cs-133
Nd-143
Nd-145
Sm-147
Sm-149
Sm-150
Sm-151
Sm-152
Eu-153
Gd-155

0.043
1.302
1.375
0.001
1.765
2.656
1.675
0.306
6.665
6.995
1.002
10.898
3.091
7.696
2.937
18.304
18.972
No data
No data
No data
4.608
17.578
2.054
4.870
3.054
1.241
5.548
3.517
10.502
5.410
4.815
56.970

0.356
0.507
0.164
0.040
0.434
0.492
0.008
1.342
1.883
8.918
2.944
10.765
0.482
2.254
3.198
5.547
12.130
0.066
0.878
3.670
2.007
1.759
0.540
0.403
2.057
0.035
2.181
1.673
1.871
4.589
3.854
10.831

1.521
1.678
0.800
0.026
0.733
3.268
2.928
1.184
1.245
2.105
6.720
17.122
1.613
1.482
4.597
4.984
4.147
0.464
5.690
0.961
0.947
13.405
0.801
1.161
1.330
0.764
0.310
3.526
8.181
17.174
0.128
30.329

0.513
1.209
0.862
0.045
0.432
0.526
0.025
0.426
0.543
19.304
0.078
28.352
0.156
4.404
6.744
2.009
0.127
11.554
0.570
2.812
2.497
3.929
0.649
0.158
2.144
1.691
0.888
4.419
14.194
6.746
0.269
13.503

2.874
0.202
1.123
0.088
1.135
2.293
1.955
1.231
0.146
17.184
0.436
19.207
4.224
5.839
7.180
2.441
9.717
0.077
1.115
3.043
1.789
2.621
0.253
0.599
1.601
0.415
1.881
3.050
2.587
3.174
2.272
0.882

2.156
0.127
1.093
0.021
1.010
0.566
1.374
2.470
0.595
10.575
4.218
2.019
1.024
0.350
0.607
2.990
19.483
No data
1.747
1.193
3.458
No data
3.158
0.856
2.428
No data
3.114
0.170
9.400
2.564
1.239
32.936

2.990
1.013
3.145
0.074
1.765
1.154
0.001
0.546
0.172
No data
0.395
10.589
7.015
5.051
10.115
10.568
16.711
1.715
0.451
3.163
0.985
4.242
1.377
1.034
0.457
1.486
9.182
10.560
12.488
0.907
1.650
48.344

4.704
5.635
1.052
0.295
1.806
1.878
2.061
0.508
2.718
12.482
6.411
13.174
0.926
4.502
11.483
6.219
1.373
9.363
8.408
4.208
3.211
8.378
4.726
7.013
6.049
1.832
8.752
10.076
12.035
9.309
7.912
31.236

Table 12
Relative difference of nuclide densities after ve years cooling.
After 5 years cool

CASLIB

APOLLO2/PEPIN2

U-234
U-235
U-236
U-238
Pu-238
Pu-239
Pu-240
Pu-241
Pu-242
Np-237
Am-241
Am-242M
Am-243
Cm-242
Cm-243
Cm-244
Cm-245
Mo-95
Tc-99
Ru-101
Rh-103
Ag-109
Cs-133
Nd-143
Nd-145
Sm-147
Sm-149
Sm-150
Sm-151
Sm-152
Eu-153
Gd-155

1.821
1.638
3.519
0.012
1.279
2.478
1.778
0.047
6.690
1.958
0.515
9.711
2.102
72.184
4.655
17.056
20.838
No data
No data
No data
8.762
17.033
2.400
3.072
3.130
4.491
7.216
5.103
11.599
5.536
4.150
66.126

0.103
0.574
1.311
0.051
0.324
0.325
0.040
1.409
1.861
3.212
1.713
9.726
1.506
8.230
4.952
7.172
9.505
2.579
0.943
3.128
3.703
2.550
1.033
0.665
2.012
1.865
0.061
0.167
4.047
4.473
3.798
1.325

KENOREST-2001
0.091
1.756
2.371
0.036
0.262
3.088
2.946
0.771
1.223
3.148
3.925
18.692
2.649
2.521
3.572
6.622
6.390
2.003
5.751
1.481
0.710
14.234
1.299
1.403
1.282
0.549
2.241
2.048
10.561
17.018
0.093
23.000

BOXER/ETOBOX

WIMS8A

MVP-BURN

BUCAL1

0.439
1.546
1.331
0.055
0.249
0.702
0.057
0.581
0.514
24.136
0.009
29.847
1.177
3.408
5.497
0.510
2.466
0.890
0.536
2.272
4.049
4.616
0.996
0.190
2.063
3.085
1.983
6.018
12.808
6.870
0.343
0.099

1.660
0.144
0.301
0.099
1.199
2.460
1.916
1.162
0.169
20.032
1.375
16.234
3.248
42.922
8.997
4.007
7.191
2.415
0.794
2.502
3.481
3.299
0.614
0.667
1.521
1.692
0.345
1.565
4.767
3.037
2.218
3.295

1.709
0.187
0.351
0.031
1.235
0.736
1.335
2.266
0.566
4.390
2.630
0.704
0.064
9.277
0.457
4.568
16.682
No data
1.423
1.712
1.047
No data
2.793
0.933
2.347
No data
2.131
1.359
8.047
2.694
1.866
44.960

2.322
5.557
0.517
0.284
0.978
1.993
1.986
0.714
2.696
1.608
1.110
12.165
0.081
12.642
9.991
4.805
3.685
7.887
8.374
4.709
2.135
7.667
4.335
6.932
6.096
2.701
9.026
8.699
10.119
9.429
8.051
48.688

B. El bakkari et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Design 239 (2009) 18281838

1837

Table 13
The atom number densities of important ssion products and actinides obtained by BUCAL1.
Isotopes

EOC 1

EOC 2

EOC 3

After 5 years cooling

U-234
U-235
U-236
U-238
Pu-238
Pu-239
Pu-240
Pu-241
Pu-242
Np-237
Am-241
Am-242M
Am-243
Cm-242
Cm-243
Cm-244
Cm-245
Mo-95
Tc-99
Ru-101
Rh-103
Ag-109
Cs-133
Nd-143
Nd-145
Sm-147
Sm-149
Sm-150
Sm-151
Sm-152
Eu-153
Gd-155

5.82310E07
4.42330E05
2.51583E06
2.11708E02
4.15453E05
8.09808E04
4.74103E04
2.17543E04
1.33807E04
1.62504E06
8.87924E06
1.18806E07
1.73441E05
8.96539E07
1.10980E08
3.62267E06
1.80028E07
1.10891E05
2.08189E05
2.21098E05
1.95378E05
4.68732E06
2.32589E05
1.47948E05
1.09189E05
7.65794E07
3.82648E07
4.50753E06
1.35717E06
2.74319E06
2.05994E06
6.83426E09

8.49990E07
3.57785E05
4.41982E06
2.09527E02
3.94870E05
6.53891E04
4.53602E04
2.34661E04
1.40732E04
3.08335E06
1.60462E05
2.96871E07
2.95663E05
2.35902E06
5.54730E08
1.14546E05
1.08440E06
2.64486E05
3.91238E05
4.24745E05
3.76117E05
8.50058E06
4.35914E05
2.84710E05
2.06668E05
2.34996E06
3.63491E07
9.51778E06
1.58145E06
4.87771E06
4.85697E06
1.13702E08

1.06960E06
2.86001E05
5.86526E06
2.07362E02
3.99513E05
5.32181E04
4.25087E04
2.33587E04
1.51014E04
4.30418E06
2.04883E05
4.10694E07
3.88837E05
3.58562E06
1.19132E07
2.11620E05
2.66908E06
4.05668E05
5.53328E05
6.13215E05
5.17889E05
1.16987E05
6.11151E05
4.02426E05
2.94471E05
4.01385E06
3.21930E07
1.43637E05
1.57260E06
6.15937E06
7.61329E06
1.85299E08

2.73973E06
2.86765E05
6.09067E06
2.07362E02
4.18975E05
5.33686E04
4.28569E04
1.83405E04
1.51014E04
3.95103E06
6.97957E05
4.00723E07
3.88824E05
2.58454E09
1.06130E07
1.74727E05
2.66795E06
4.55853E05
5.55296E05
6.13227E05
5.47484E05
1.17120E05
6.15833E05
4.09799E05
2.94558E05
1.01316E05
3.63127E07
1.43637E05
1.52348E06
6.15944E06
7.65040E06
3.11375E07

For the remaining actinides, all the codes produce relative deviations to mean values which vary between 15%.
For ssion products isotopes, the relative deviations to mean
values produced by all the compared codes are within the range of
12%, except for Mo-95 isotope which is highly overestimated by
BOXER (40%), and Gd-155 in which, all the compared codes produce
highly relative deviations to mean value (60%).
In the case of EOC2, EOC3, and after 5 years cooling
(Tables 1012), generally the same tendency as EOC1 is observed by
all the codes (including BUCAL1) for the majority of nuclides, with
small changes in the relative deviations values, principally due to
the statistical error propagation. Two things to note in the case after
5 years cooling are: 1) CASLIB produces very higher relative deviation to mean value between codes (73%) for Cm-242. 2) BUCAL1
produces the higher relative deviation between codes (6%) for U235, this can explain the higher value, compared to the other codes,
obtained for k (0.921430) (Table 13).
The difference in U-235 nuclide density remarked for BUCAL1,
in comparison to other codes, can be due generally to many reasons, for example: (1) it can be due to the more detailed actinides
decay chain in BUCAL1, which takes into account the production
of U-235 isotope through beta + decay from Np-235, and alpha
decay from Pu-239. Note that, some codes use just simplied
actinides decay chain, assuming that certain reactions have no
effects of k values, so the nuclide densities for the corresponding
nuclides stay constants between EOC3 and after 5 years cooling, for example the case of U-235 nuclide density with CASLIB
(OConnor, 2003). (2) It also can be due to the neutron cross
section data libraries, in which BUCAL1 uses the more recent
one.
6. Conclusion
New burnup code utility called BUCAL1 was developed. The
code is different in comparison to other burnup codes as it

does not use the calculated neutron ux as input to other

computer codes to generate the nuclide inventory for the next
time step. Instead, BUCAL1 directly uses the neutron absorption
tally/reaction information generated by MCNP5 for each nuclide
of interest to determine the new nuclide inventory. This allows
the full capabilities of the MCNP code to be incorporated into
the calculations and a more direct solution technique to be
employed.
The validation process of BUCAL1 was done by code-to-code
comparisons using several codes from the NEA/OCED. Innite multiplication factor (k ) and important ssion products and actinides
concentrations were compared and analysed for a MOX core benchmark exercise.
In general, the benchmark calculation results obtained by
BUCAL1 show good agreement compared to the mean values and
results from other codes. After 5 years cooling the relative deviation from the average value for the innite multiplication factor
(k ) using BUCAL1 is lower than 1%. For important ssion product
and actinide densities, BUCAL1 produces the average value within
10%. The relative deviations to the mean values for Np-237 and
Gd-155 are relatively large for the majority of codes used in this
study.

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