Validation of SIMULATE5-K and CASMO5 with the SPERT-III E-Core

SIMULATE5-K (S5K) is the newest state-of-the-art, best-estimate, transient reactor analysis software developed by Studsvik Scandpower, Inc. (SSP). When used in conjunction with CASMO5 to generate multi-group neutronic data for steady-state and transient calculations, S5K can be used to accurately model reactor transient conditions in Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) and Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs). Recently, the methods in S5K and CASMO5 were validated by simulating reactor transients from the SPERT-III E-core experiments. These experiments were performed on a small Light Water Reactor (LWR) core and were designed to resemble Reactivity Insertion Accidents (RIAs) in PWRs. Overall, the results calculated with S5K agree well with the experimentally measured data and any differences are much smaller than the reported uncertainties in the measurements, especially the uncertainty in the initial condition. Additionally, S5K supports general multi-group time-dependent neutron diffusion calculations and the SPERT-III E-core experiments were used to show that there were no obvious trends or discrepancies when the two-, four-, and eight-group calculations were compared.