Development of Real-Time Fuel Management Capability at the Texas A&M Nuclear Science Center

For the Texas A&M University Nuclear Science Center reactor a fuel depletion code was created to develop real-time fuel management capability. This code package links MCNP8 and ORIGEN26 and is interfaced through a Visual Basic code. Microsoft Visual Basic was used to create a user interface and for pre-and post-processing of MCNP and ORIGEN2 output. MCNP was used to determine the flux for all fuel and control rods within the core while ORIGEN2 used this flux along with the power history to calculate buildup and depletion for tracking the fuel isotopic evolution through time. A comparison of MCNP calculated fluxes and measured flux values were used to confirm the validity of the MCNP model. A comparison to Monteburns was used to add confidence to the correctness of the calculated fuel isotopics. All material isotopics were stored in a Microsoft Access database for integration with the Visual Basic code to allow for isotopics report generation for the Nuclear Science Center staff. This fuel management code performs its function with reasonable accuracy. It gathers minimal information from the user and burns the core over daily operation. After execution it stores all material data to the database for further use within NSCRFM or for isotopic report generation.