Investigation on the depletion calculation with neutronic-temperature coupling in the fuel pellet of light water reactor

Abstract The impact from the neutronic-temperature coupling on the depletion calculation of fuel pellet in light water reactor configuration is investigated with coupling schemes between the Monte Carlo code Serpent and an in-house radial temperature solver. Two external coupling schemes are developed. One is the direct coupling of burnup and power on the whole pin level and the other one is the fine coupling of radial burnup and power distribution. Numerical results show that the neutronic-temperature coupling brings non-negligible effect on the kinf, power distribution and isotopic inventory in depletion calculation. The difference between two coupling scheme shows that the fine coupling of radial burnup and power distribution and the direct coupling obtain equal result from the aspect of lattice physics calculation.