Validation Study of the Reactor Physics Lattice Transport Code DRAGON5 Based on DRAGLIB Libraries by TRX and BAPL Critical Experiments of Light Water Reactors for Neutronic Analysis of TRIGA MARK-II Research Reactor

The objective of this analysis is to present the validation study of the latest release of the reactor physics lattice transport code DRAGON5 by TRX and BAPL critical experiments of light water reactors for neutrons calculations of Moroccan 2 MW TRIGA MARK-II research reactor. This study is accomplished through the analysis of integral parameters of five light water reactor critical experiments TRX-1, TRX-2, BAPL-UO2-1, BAPL-UO2-2, and BAPL-UO2-3 based on the open-source Draglibs nuclear data libraries ENDF/B-VII.1 and JEFF-3.1.2. These experiments are being considered as standard benchmarks lattices for testing and validating the reactor physics lattice transport code DRAGON5 as well as nuclear data libraries. The integral parameters—k_effρ²⁸, δ²⁵, δ²⁸ and C* —of the said lattices are calculated using the reactor physics lattice transport code DRAGON5 at a room temperature and compared to measured values as well as the Monte Carlo values based on the Chinese evaluated nuclear data library CENDL-3.0. It was found that the results calculated show good agreement with the experiment and the MCNP results. Therefore, this study reflects the validation, the adequacy, and the accuracy of the reactor physics lattice transport code DRAGON5 based on the open-source Draglibs nuclear data libraries ENDF/B-VII.0.1 and JEFF 3.1.2 evaluation with SHEM-295 group-structure and can also be important to execute neutronic analysis of thermal reactor such as the Moroccan 2 MW TRIGA MARK-II research reactor at CENM, achieved initial criticality on May 2, 2007.