Development of a computational scheme based on the DRAGON5 code for the neutronic study of VVER-type reactor rods and assemblies

Open source modeling of VVER-type reactors could become a medium-term objective in Eastern Europe. As the deterministic code DRAGON5 could meet such a need, we confronted DRAGON5 against a stochastic reference code, SERPENT2. Our validation comprises 7 cells and 4 assemblies from the Khmelnitsky-2 reactor in Ukraine, within a wide range of heterogeneity levels in fuel composition. Two calculation schemes have been developed and compared. The first, the ALAMOS scheme, is highly discretized in energy and spatial resolution, while the second, the REL2005-like scheme, is calculated in two levels (one highly discretized in energy and the other highly discretized in space). In the majority of cases studied, both schemes offer satisfactory accuracy (e.g. less than 300 pcm in k eff ), although there are difficulties related to energy deposition with gadolinium-poisoned fuel. While showing significantly poorer results than the ALAMOS scheme, the REL2005-like scheme offers lower computation times and major avenues for improvement remain to be explored. This work offers a first step towards the simulation of VVER-type reactors in DRAGON5, and paves the way for full-core simulations. • 7 cells and 4 assemblies of the Khmelnitsky-2 VVER have been simulated in DRAGON5. • At assembly level, two different calculation schemes have been developed. • DRAGON5 calculations were compared with SERPENT2 reference results. • The results obtained open the way to full-core simulation of VVER-type reactors.