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# SCALE/TRITON Primer: A Primer for Light Water Reactor Lattice Physics Calculations (NUREG/CR-7041, ORNL/TM-2011/21)

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## Publication Information

**Manuscript Completed:** July 2012**Date Published:** November 2012

**Prepared by:** B. J. Ade

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Managed by UT-Battelle, LLC Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6170

I. Frankl, NRC Project Manager

NRC Job Code V6098 (formerly N7098)

**Prepared for:** Division of Systems Analysis Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington DC 20555-0001

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## Abstract

The SCALE (**S**tandardized **C**omputer **A**nalyses for **L**icensing **E**valuation) computer software system developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is widely used and accepted around the world for many radiation transport applications. TRITON (**T**ransport **R**igor **I**mplemented with **T**ime-dependent **O**peration for **N**eutronic depletion) is a control module developed within the framework of SCALE that enables 2-D and 3-D depletion calculations to be performed by coordinating iterative calls between cross-section processing codes, a neutron transport solver, and the ORIGEN (**O**ak **R**idge **I**sotope **GEN**eration) point-depletion code. TRITON has the capability to utilize KENO-V.a or KENO-VI 3-D Monte Carlo codes, or the NEWT (**N**ew **E**SC-Based **W**eighting **T**ransport) 2-D discrete ordinates transport code for the neutron transport solution. This primer focuses on use of the NEWT transport solver with SCALE/TRITON to generate cross sections for light water reactor nodal simulators.

In TRITON, NEWT is used to calculate weighted burnup-dependent cross sections that are employed to update ORIGEN libraries and to provide localized fluxes used for multiple depletion regions. TRITON uses a two-pass cross-section update approach to perform fuel-assembly burnup and branch calculations and generates a database of cross sections and other burnup-dependent physics data that can be used for full-core analysis. To date, cross-section data generated with TRITON/NEWT have been used in a wide variety of applications, including generation of cross sections for core calculations with PARCS (**P**urdue **A**dvanced **R**eactor **C**ore **S**imulator) for NRC analyses, for NESTLE (**N**odal **E**igenvalue, **S**teady-State, **T**ransient, **L**e Core **E**valuator) for in-house methods development research, for Bold Venture for High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) low-enriched uranium conversion studies, and for Attila for Advanced Test Reactor core calculations.

The primer is based on SCALE 6.1, which includes the **G**raphically **E**nhanced **E**diting **Wiz**ard (GeeWiz) Windows user interface. Each example in this primer uses GeeWiz to provide the framework for preparing input data and viewing output results. Beginning with a *Quickstart* section, the primer gives an overview of the basic requirements for SCALE/TRITON input and allows the user to quickly run a simple pin cell simulation with SCALE/TRITON. The sections that follow the *Quickstart* include a list of basic objectives at the beginning that identifies the goal of the section and the individual SCALE/TRITON features that are covered in detail in the sample problems in that section. Upon completion of the primer, a new user should be comfortable using GeeWiz to set up 2-D lattice physics problems in SCALE/TRITON.

The primer provides a starting point for the reactor engineer who uses SCALE/TRITON for lattice physics. Complete descriptions are provided in the SCALE/TRITON manual. Although the primer is self-contained, it is intended as a companion volume to the SCALE/TRITON documentation—the SCALE manual is provided on the SCALE installation DVD. The primer provides specific examples of using SCALE/TRITON for lattice physics analyses; the SCALE/TRITON manual provides detailed information on the use of SCALE/TRITON and all its modules. The primer also contains an appendix with sample input files.

Page Last Reviewed/Updated Thursday, March 25, 2021