École Nationale Supérieure de
Techniques Avancées

Résumé

Modeling a nuclear reactor requires solving coupled multi-physics systems. The neutronic-thermohydraulic coupling is of particular interest, although it can be very time-consuming to solve. A family of neutron solution methods, the quasi-static methods (point kinetics, PCQM), can be adapted for solving this coupling (coupled point kinetics, adiabatic, open PCQM). This report demonstrates the validation of these methods on the case of a Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR), and their application to a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) control rod ejection scenario. The ejection of a control rod is a suitable test case due to its spatial heterogeneity and significant reactivity variations, which highlight the challenges of the different methods.