USE OF THE SURFACE HARMONICS METHOD FOR CALCULATION OF 2D BENCHMARK C5G7 MOX

Benchmark C5G7 MOX was proposed specially to test the ability of current transport codes to compute reactor core without use the procedure of spatial homogenization. Seven group cross sections for all materials were given. Just that fact allows to test an accuracy of solving neutron transport equation by different codes excluding additional errors connected with preparing group cross sections. In this paper, Surface Harmonics Method (SHM) is applied to compute the two-dimensional configuration of this benchmark. Different approximations of SHM were applied both without use procedure of spatial homogenization and with use this procedure. This fact allowed additionally carry out evaluation of the effect of spatial homogenization of cells. Comparisons were carried out for keff and pin powers with both the reference results and between the results calculated by different approximations of SHM. Besides, values of k∝ both for fuel pin cells and for fuel assemblies are presented.