Control Rod Heterogeneity Effects in Liquid-Metal Fast Breeder Reactors: Method Developments and Experimental Validation

The control rod worth assessment in a large liquid-metal fast breeder reactor is strongly dependent on the actual arrangement of the absorber pins inside the control rod subassemblies. The so-called heterogeneity effects (i.e., the effects on the rod reactivity of the actual rod internal geometry versus homogenization of the absorber atoms over all the subassembly volume) have been evaluated, using explicit and variational methods to derive appropriate cross sections. An experimental program performed at the MASURCA facility has been used to validate these methods.