RSICC Home Page                 RSICC CODE PACKAGE CCC-764

1.         NAME AND TITLE

MURE v2 - SMURE: Serpent - MCNP Utility for Reactor Evolution.

 

AUXILIARY PROGRAMS:

MureGui:                                 GUI to visualize and post-treat MURE evolution results

ENDF2ACE:                            Interface to NJOY to prepare ACE format files for MCNP from ENDF cross section library

ExtractTree/ExtractXsdir:         Build the BaseSummary.dat file needed for MURE evolution

GenerateFPYield:                     Generate binary fission product yield file from ENDF fission product yield file

 

Not included in the distribution package:

COBRA-EN (P00507IBMPC00)

MCNP5/MCNPX (C00740MNYCP02)

NJOY99 (P00480MNYCP00)

SERPENT2 (Available at http://montecarlo.vtt.fi/)

2.         CONTRIBUTORS

Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie de Grenoble, France

Institut de Physique Nucleaire d'Orsay, France

Through the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency Data Bank, Issy-Les Moulineaux, France.

3.         CODING LANGUAGE AND COMPUTER

C++ on a LINUX or UNIX Operating System

RSICC ID: C00764MNYWS01; NEADB identifier is NEA-1845/002

4.         NATURE OF PROBLEM SOLVED

The main aim of the MURE package is to perform nuclear reactor time-evolution using successive calls to the widely used particle transport code Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) or Serpent. (S)MURE is an object-oriented package; therefore, users are free to interact with it in their own way or to use the evolution controls already developed. MURE also provides coupling of the neutronics (with or without fuel burn-up) and thermal-hydraulics using a sub-channel 3D code, COBRA-EN. A graphical interface is provided to visualize and post-treat the results, including radiotoxicity calculations, waste heats, and other results. An interface to NJOY to generate cross sections in the MCNP ACE format (endf2ace) is also provided in the MURE package. See http://lpsc.in2p3.fr/MURE/html/MURE/MURE.html for more details.

5.         METHOD OF SOLUTION

(S)MURE provides an interface to MCNP or Serpent to build complex geometries using object-oriented programming and/or the ability to calculate nuclear fuel depletion. Moreover, it is very easy to modify a MURE input to switch from MCNP to Serpent, or vice-versa. Neutron transport is performed by MCNP/MCNPX or Serpent2, and depletion is calculated using numerical integration via the Runge-Kutta algorithm. Successive MCNP runs and Bateman equation resolutions are performed until the end of the evolution time. Interactions during the evolution calculation allow the user to impose conditions such as power levels, constant keff, and others. Users can easily implement their own evolution controls owing to the object-oriented programming and inheritance mechanism. Standard evolutions evaluate one-group constant reaction rates between two MCNP runs for solving the Bateman equations at each step. However, predictor-corrector methods can also be used, as well as quasi-multi group flux, in which reaction rates are calculated outside of MCNP from flux tallies for each cell, with a highly discretized energy binning. Reaction rates in this method are calculated after each MCNP run using the same ACE cross section files that were used in the neutron transport; the advantage of this method is a large CPU time gain in MCNP (by at least a factor 30).

6.         RESTRICTIONS OR LIMITATIONS

For high-energy physics (above 20 MeV), very little testing has been performed. To date, MURE has only been used with neutron transport. Electrons, photons, and protons have not been transported, and fuel evolution involving reactions induced by these particles is not performed.

7.         TYPICAL RUNNING TIME

On a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4, the compilation of MURE takes about 2 minutes. Run times depend mainly on MCNP run times; for the evolving examples provided, and using the quasi-multi group approach, the typical run time is about 10 minutes.

8.         COMPUTER HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

MURE runs on the LINUX operating system and most likely will run on any UNIX computer. Expanding and compiling the code system requires 120 MB of hard disk space.

9.         COMPUTER SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

·         A C++ compiler (such as g++ of GCC)

·         MCNP or MCNPX (C00740MNYCP02) or SERPENT2 (available at http://montecarlo.vtt.fi/)

·         If coupling with thermics and thermal-hydraulics is required: COBRA-EN (P00507IBMPC00)

·         For graphical user interface (GUI): ROOT (http://root.cern.ch)

·         For radiotoxicity post processing calculations: LAPACK library (available for any LINUX distribution or at http://www.netlib.org/lapack)

·         If ENDF2ACE is needed: NJOY is required (NJOY99, P00480MNYCP00)

10.       REFERENCES:

·         Méplan O., Nuttin A., Laulan O., David S., Michel-Sendis F. et al.,
“MURE : MCNP Utility for Reactor Evolution - Description of the Methods, First Applications and Results,” Proceedings of the ENC 2005 (CD-Rom) - ENC 2005 - European Nuclear Conference. Nuclear Power for the XXIst Century: From Basic Research to High-Tech Industry, France

·         Michel-Sendis F., Méplan O., David S., Nuttin A., Bidaud A. et al.,
“Plutonium Incineration and Uranium 233 Production in Thorium Fueled Light Water Reactors,” GLOBAL 2005 Proceedings (CD-Rom) - GLOBAL 2005: International Conference on Nuclear Energy Systems for Future Generation and Global Sustainability, Japan.

Included in documentation

·         MURE 2: SMURE, Serpent, MCNP Utility for Reactor Evolution, User Guide Version 1.0, LPSC report no. LPSC-17002 (February 2017).

·         FAQ on MURE package.

·         L. Perot (IPNOrsay), O. Meplan (LPSC Grenoble): ENDF2ACEUserGuide, February 2017 (PDF).

·         MURE Project Documentation, February 2017 (HTML).

 

11.       CONTENTS OF CODE PACKAGE

The package is transmitted digitally as a download link in a .tar format, which includes reference material, documentation, source files, and sample problems. No executables are included with the package.

12.       DATE OF ABSTRACT

June 2021

KEYWORDS:     COST ANALYSIS, DEPLETION, FISSION PRODUCTS, FUEL MANAGEMENT, INVENTORIES, MONTE CARLO METHOD, NEUTRON.