Neutronics modeling of the SPERT III E-Core critical experiments with MPACT and KENO

The Special Power Excursion Reactor Test (SPERT) III E-Core is a small experimental reactor having many of the general characteristics of a commercial light water power reactor except for a great geometric complexity and stronger heterogeneity. A detailed steady-state neutronics model for SPERT III E-Core was developed with the Monte Carlo code KENO and the deterministic 3D transport code MPACT. All components including fuel assemblies, control rods, transient rod, flux suppressors, grid spacers and dummy spacer assemblies were explicitly modeled. Calculations were performed for cold zero power (CZP) and hot zero power (HZP) critical conditions of the core. Numerical results indicate that both models were able to achieve very good agreement with experimental measurements for both eigenvalue and control rod worths, and good agreement was obtained with each other with respect to fission rate distributions.