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Monte Carlo Neutronic Analysis of Er2O3 Discrete Burnable Absorber Rods in a VVER-1200 Fuel Assembly
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DOI：10.1016/j.net.2026.104554.png)
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Abstract
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Er2O3 discrete burnable absorber rods in a TVSA-12-type VVER-1200 hexagonal fuel assembly were evaluated using OpenMC with the ENDF/B-VIII.0 nuclear data library. Nine configurations were investigated, comprising Er2O3 concentrations of 2–8 wt% in 12 ring-5 rods, rod-count variants of 6–18 rods at 4 wt%, and Gd2O3 reference cases. Beginning-of-life reactivity worth ranged from −1,116 to −2,945 pcm, while the reactivity efficiency decreased from −558 to −368 pcm/wt%. Rod-count scaling was linear (−149.3 pcm/rod; R2 = 0.9993), indicating negligible inter-rod self-shielding. Depletion to 60 MWd/kgU produced a monotonic decline in k∞ for all Er2O3 cases, in contrast to a +129 pcm mid-cycle reactivity recovery for the 4 wt% Gd2O3 case. Approximately 97% of the initial Er-167 inventory was depleted by the end of the cycle under the adopted depletion model. Doppler temperature coefficients remained negative, ranging from −1.9 to −3.5 pcm/K over the burnup range, while moderator temperature coefficients remained negative throughout. Multi-criteria decision analysis identified the 4 wt% Er2O3, 12-rod configuration as the engineering optimum, providing −1,822 pcm reactivity suppression, a 192 ppm (7.1%) reduction in critical boron concentration, an assembly-level radial power peaking factor (Kq) of 1.514, and a burnup penalty of only 0.4 MWd/kgU.
Keywords:
Er2O3
VVER-1200
burnable absorber
discrete BA rods
OpenMC
Monte Carlo
depletion
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