Use of the surface harmonics method forcalculation of 2D C5G7 MOX benchmark

Abstract The C5G7 MOX benchmark specifying a sixteen-assembly core with asurrounding water reflector was proposed as a basis to measure current transport code abilities in the treatment of reactor core problems without spatial homogenization. Seven-group cross sections for all materials were used as initial information. Just that fact allows to test an accuracy of solving the neutron transport equation excluding additional errors connected with preparing the group cross sections. In this paper, Surface Harmonics Method (SHM) is applied to calculation of the two-dimensional configuration of this benchmark. Different approximations of SHM were applied, both with and without spatial homogenization. Additionally, this fact allowed evaluating the effect of spatial homogenization of cells. Comparisons were carried out for k eff and pin powers both with the reference results and between the results calculated by different SHM approximations.