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| Program name | Package id | Status | Status date |
|---|---|---|---|
| VSOP99-11 | IAEA1440/01 | Tested | 12-OCT-2021 |
Machines used:
| Package ID | Orig. computer | Test computer |
|---|---|---|
| IAEA1440/01 | Linux-based PC,PC Windows | Linux-based PC,PC Windows |
VSOP (Very Superior Old Programs) is a system of codes linked together for the simulation of reactor life histories. It comprises neutron cross section libraries and processing routines, repeated neutron spectrum evaluation, 2-D and 3-D diffusion calculation, depletion and shut-down features, in-core and out-of-pile fuel management, fuel cycle cost analysis, and thermal hydraulics (steady state and transient). Various techniques have been employed to accelerate the iterative processes and to optimize the internal data transfer.
The code system has been used extensively for comparison studies of thermal reactors, their fuel cycles, thermal transients, and safety assessment. Besides its use in research and development work for the Gas Cooled High Temperature Reactor, the system has been applied successfully to Light Water and Heavy Water Reactors, MAGNOX, and RBMK.
The nuclear data for 184 isotopes are contained in two libraries. Fast and epithermal data in a 68 group GAM-I structure have been prepared mainly from ENDF/B-V and JEF-1. Resonance cross section data are given as input. Thermal data in a 30 group THERMOS structure have been collapsed from a 96 group THERMALIZATION (GATHER) library by a relevant neutron energy spectrum generated by the THERMALIZATION code. Graphite scattering matrices are based on the Young phonon spectrum in graphite.
The neutron spectrum is calculated by a combination of the GAM and THERMOS codes. They can simultaneously be employed for many core regions differing in temperature, burnup, and fuel element lay-out. The thermal cell code THERMOS has been extended to treat the grain structure of the coated particles inside the fuel elements, and the epithermal GAM code uses modified cross sections for the resonance absorbers prepared from double heterogeneous ZUT-DGL calculations.
The diffusion module of the code is CITATION with 2 - 8 energy groups. It provides the neutron flux for 1515 compositions in 2-D cases, r-z (9999 compositions in 3-D cases, x-y-z). The burnup scheme has been developed from the FEVER code. The build-up history of up to 49 fission product nuclides in the compositions is followed explicitly. The diffusion part of the program system can be repeated at many short burnup time steps, and the spectrum module can be repeated at larger time steps, when some significant change in the spectrum is expected.
The fuel management and cost module performs the fuel shuffling and general evaluations of the reactor and fuel element life history. The fuel management simulates the currently known shuffling and out of pile routes for various reactors. It has further been extended to include the typical features of the pebble bed reactor such as burnup dependent optional reloading of elements, separated treatment of different fuel streams, and recycling in new fuel element types according to a consistent mass balance and timing.
Optionally, several different types of data files can be set up with characteristic data of the reactor life. These are used for more detailed investigations and display programs. The restart option allows the study of special phases of the reactor life, e.g. changes of the fueling scheme, of the burnup, of the power output, of the coolant temperature, and of the corresponding reactivity effects. The fuel cycle cost data set is made for the present worth KPD code. Two-dimensional thermal hydraulics studies for operating and emergency conditions can be performed with the THERMIX code. The averaged temperatures of the different spectrum zones in the core are returned from the thermal hydraulics to the subsequent step of the reactor history.
In epithermal energy range the cell spectrum calculation is missing. If needed, it must be simulated by disadvantage factors being obtained in other codes. Further, dynamic common must be defined for the commons VARDIM, COCI, and for VARPRI (in the auxiliary program PRIOR). This is not needed under the workstation operating systems.
VSOP contains the codes: DATA-2, BIRGIT, TRIGIT, ZUT-DGL, GAM-1, THERMOS, FEVER, KPD, THERMIX, LIFE, PRIOR and ATALS. The code system uses thermal data collapsed from a THERMALIZATION/GATHER library using a spectrum generated by the THERMALIZATION code.
The precursor of VSOP was the MAFIA-II code.
- L. Massimo
"MAFIA-II, A One-Dimensional Burnup Code" Argonne National Laboratory, ANL-7050 (1966).
- G. D. Joanou, et al.:
"GATHER-II, an IBM-7090 Fortran II Program for the Computation of Thermal Spectra and Associated Multigroup Cross Sections" General Atomic GA-4132 (1963).
- J. Darvas
"DATA-2, Head Programm zum VSOP Zyklus fuer Hochtemperaturreaktoren" KFA Internal Report, KFA-IRE-70-4 (1970).
- G.D. Joanou, J.S. Dudek:
"GAM - A Consistent P1 Multigroup Code for the Calculation of Fast Neutron Spectra and Multigroup Constants" General Atomic GA-1850 (1961).
- H C. Honeck:
"THERMOS - A Thermalization Transport Theory Code for Reactor Lattice Calculation" Brookhaven National Laboratory BNL-5826 (1961).
- F. Todt:
"FEVER - A One-Dimensional Few Group Depletion Program for Reactor Analysis" General Dynamics - General Atomic, GA-2749 (1962).
- U. Hansen:
"The VSOP System Present Worth Fuel Cycle Calculation Methods and Codes, KPD" Atomic Energy Establishment Winfrith, England, Dragon Project Report 915 (1975).
- K. Petersen, A. Verfondern:
"THERMIX, ein Computerprogramm zur Berechnung des instationaeren Temperaturverhaltens gasdurchstroemter Kugelschuettungen"
- E. Teuchert, K.A. Haas:
"ZUT-DGL-V.S.O.P. Programmzyklus fuer die Resonanzabsorption in heterogenen Anordnungen" Internal Report, KFA-IRE-70-1 (1970).
Tested at the NEA Data Bank with:
WINDOWS:
COMPUTER: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7600U @ 2.80 GHz CPU Processor, RAM: 16.0 GB
OPERATING SYSTEM: Microsoft Windows 10
LINUX:
COMPUTER: Intel® Core™ NUC7i7BNH i7-7567U processor 4.0 GHz Turbo Dual Core CPU, RAM: 16.0 GB
OPERATING SYSTEM: Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS
COMPILER: gfortran v9.3, gcc v9.3
Keywords: burnup, depletion, fuel cycle, heavy water cooled reactors, high temperature reactors, light-water reactors, reaction kinetics, reactor kinetics.
