Code Development for the Neutronics/Thermal-Hydraulics Coupling Transient Analysis of Molten Salt Reactors

A code system has been developed in this paper for the dynamics simulations of MSRs. The homogenized cross section data library is generated using the continuous-energy Monte-Carlo code OpenMC which provides significant modeling flexibility compared against the traditional deterministic lattice transport codes. The few-group cross sections generated by OpenMC are provided to TANSY and TANSY_K which is based on OpenFOAM to perform the steady-state full-core coupled simulations and dynamics simulation. For verification and application of the codes sequence, the simulation of a representative molten salt reactor core MOSART has been performed. For the further study of the characteristics of MSRs, several transients like the code-slug transient, unprotected loss of flow transient and overcooling transient have been analyzed. The numerical results indicated that the TANSY and TANSY_K codes with the cross section library generated by OpenMC has the capability for the dynamics analysis of MSRs.