HTR Pebble Fuel Burnup Experimental Benchmark

The HTR pebble fuel experiment HFR EU1bis was irradiated in the High Flux Reactor, Petten, The Netherlands, in 2004 and 2005. It consisted of five fuel pebbles from the German HTR program (GLE4 type, UO₂ fuel, 16.75% enrichment) and six minisamples (UO₂ fuel, 9.75% enrichment). Its instrumentation included three flux monitor sets. The experiment was loaded in a REFA-170 rig, surrounded by a strongly moderating filler element. The central fuel temperature was held at 1250°C during the irradiation. In the framework of the European RAPHAEL project, Post Irradiation Examination (PIE) has been done at NRG in Petten, The Netherlands and at JRC ITU in Karlsruhe, Germany. In Petten, flux monitor analysis has been done, whereas in Karlsruhe, a quantitative evaluation of γ-emitters was used to make a burn-up determination. A benchmark description based on this experiment has been written by NRG. Until now, five RAPHAEL project participants have modeled the experiment, each with their own neutronics code system. Participating codes are three versions of MONTEBURNS (MCNP with ORIGEN), MURE/MCNP and OCTOPUS (MCNP with FISPACT). The pebble burnup and isotopic inventories (Bq/gram initial HM) of selected fission products and actinides in the fuel pebble samples are both calculated and determined by gamma spectrometry, mass spectrometry and ion chromatography by JRC-ITU. Additionally, two participants calculated the flux monitor activities that were measured by NRG. A burnup measurement of 11.0 % FIMA by gamma spectrometry could be confirmed by calculation. Differences between the various modeling approaches and the experimental burn-up determination will be discussed.