Nuclear Engineering and Design 261 (2013) 226–231

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Nuclear Engineering and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/nucengdes

Computation of ex-core detector weighting functions for VVER-440 using MCNP5

Gabriel Farkas ∗ , Jozef Lipka, Ján Haščík, Vladimír Slugeň
Slovak University of Technology, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Institute of Nuclear and Physical Engineering, Ilkovičova 3, SK-812 19 Bratislava,
Slovakia

h i g h l i g h t s

 Pin-wise spatial weight functions were determined for ex-core detectors using MCNP
 Ex-core detector response is mainly determined by a few peripheral fuel assemblies
 The weigh factor values vary significantly within a given fuel assembly
 Eight-fold decrease of weight factor values is observed in peripheral core region.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The paper deals with the problem of weighting factor calculation and the determination of spatial weight-
Received 6 February 2012 ing functions of ex-core detectors for VVER-440 using the Monte Carlo method. The computational results
Received in revised form 9 January 2013 were obtained by the well-known code MCNP5 allowing high performance three-dimensional modeling
Accepted 10 January 2013
of complex geometry of the in-vessel and ex-vessel reactor parts. Despite the fact that adjoint methods
dominate in practice, forward mode of code running was chosen and applied to provide more accurate
results contrary to the adjoint one. The calculation was performed for a boron lined proportional counter
CPNB44 installed at the 3rd unit of NPP Jaslovské Bohunice. The base is the calculation of ex-core detector
reaction rate induced by a neutron generated in a given volume element of a fuel pin. All the geometrical
details and arising space heterogeneities were taken into account with the highest accuracy in the com-
plex reactor model. Having obtained computational results, the weighted least square method was used
to fit axial weighting functions. With respect to horizontal direction, the polyhedral approximation of
closed Jordan surfaces was used to find the proper shape of horizontal weighting factor distribution. Sen-
sitivity and parametric analysis was performed to evaluate the influence of various reactor operational
parameters as well as the ex-core detector positioning on the weighting function values.
© 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The contribution of fuel assemblies to the ex-core detector
response depends not only on the power, but also on the posi-
tion of the given assembly in the core. The weight of the inner
assemblies is several orders of magnitude lower than the outer
ones. Consequently, the detector response for a given reactor power
is strongly influenced by the spatial power distribution and indi-
rectly by the parameters determining the distribution, such as core
loading pattern, time elapsed, position of control assembly, coolant
temperature, etc.
Precise knowledge of the spatial weighting functions can be very
beneficial for the solving of various reactor physical, operational,
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +421 2 602 91 173.
E-mail addresses: gabriel.farkas@stuba.sk, miroslava.smitkova@stuba.sk
(G. Farkas), jozef.lipka@stuba.sk (J. Lipka), jan.hascik@stuba.sk (J. Haščík),
vladimir.slugen@stuba.sk (V. Slugeň).
and safety problems. It can be useful for the proper interpretation
of the startup test measurements, e.g. determination of whether
the measured detector response during the rod-drop experiment
supports the predicted reactivity value from the loading pattern
calculations. Another use may be the calculation of ex-core detector
response in deep subcritical reactor states, evaluation of influence
of the core loading pattern on the detector response, and the detec-
tor calibration. A very important application area is the reactor
safety analysis. In this case the elaborate weighting functions can
be helpful in investigating how efficiently certain transients which
cause a sudden change in the power density distribution can be
detected by the ex-core detectors.
The work was based on the previous study of Csom, Czifrus,
and Fehér (Csom et al., 2001). Additionally, in our contribution, the
developed calculational model and method is described to deter-
mine the spatial weighting functions of ex-core detectors for the
VVER-440 reactor type, taking into account different operational
parameters such as reactor power, burn up, boric acid concentra-
tion, position of the control assembly, etc.

0029-5493/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2013.01.026
 G. Farkas et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Design 261 (2013) 226–231 227

2. The problem of weighting function

The spatial weighting function gives a relationship between

the spatial power distribution in the core and the ex-core detec-
tor response. The weighting function can be defined in various
ways in dependence on the problem to be solved. In general, it
is a position-dependent contribution of a given part of the core
(e.g. fuel assembly, fuel pin or a portion of the fuel pin) to the ex-
core detector response. In this particular case the weighing function
value represents the average number of reactions occurred in the
ex-core detector per one source neutron created in one-twentieth
of a fuel pin height. Source neutron is a neutron created (with Watt
fission spectra for 235 U, and 239 Pu fissile isotopes, or Maxwell fis-
sion spectra for 241 Pu fissile isotope) by fission in the twentieth of
fuel pin in the given core position.
It follows from the above definition that real ex-core detector
response D is obtained by convolution of two spatial functions –
the power distribution function and the weighting function, and
integration of the response function over the whole core region in
interest. The corresponding integral equation is the following:

D = CP p0 (r)w(r) dV, (1) Fig. 1. Placement of the VVER-440 ex-core detectors.
V

where w(r) is the spatial weighting function, p0 (r) – the relative

reactor power distribution, P – the total reactor power, C – a con- enabling the treatment of complex three-dimensional geometry.
stant, V – the relevant core volume. Therefore the MCNP5 Monte Carlo code was chosen (MCT, 2003).
The spatial weighting function w(r) is defined as: Calculation of the spatial weighting functions of ex-core detec-
d0 (r) d0 (r) tors using the Monte Carlo method is not novel. The application
w(r) = =  (2) of the MCNP code for determination of weighting functions is
d d0 (→ r) dV
V reported in the literature (Csom et al., 2001; Kaloinen et al., 1999).
where d0 (r) is the unit detector response created by that portion of For several reasons, the forward method was applied contrary to
neutrons which arises from a core volume element dV(in  position the “time-saving” adjoint method. For example, the use of for-
r) and reaches the sensitive volume of the detector, d = V d0 (r) dV ward mode of run makes it possible to eliminate errors due to
– the total ex-core detector response given as an integral over the the homogenization of the assembly as well as the use of group-
volume V of the core. wise nuclear data. Neutron transport calculation was performed by
The relative reactor power distribution p0 (r) can be expressed fix-source method. This method enables to compute single weight-
by formula: ing factor values from separate fuel pin elements of the source
p(r) V region.
p0 (r) = = p(r) (3)
p P
where p(r) is the power in a given core volume element dV in posi- 4. The calculation model
tion r, p = P/V – the average power density of the core.
The constant C can be determined as: Regarding the objective of the work to determine the weight-
ing functions with high accuracy and reliability, the geometric
d
C= . (4) and material part of the reactor model had to be created in the
V
finest possible details. Precise 3D whole-core model of the VVER-
The response of the ex-core detector can be simplified as the 440 was developed with MCNP5. The model has a wide range
following sum approximation: of applications in various areas of reactor-physical, operational
 and safety calculations and analyses. Horizontal and vertical sec-
D∼
= CP Wi P, (5)
tion of the VVER-440 model is shown in Figs. 2 and 5. The next
i
step was the adjustment of created universal model to the effi-
where Wi is weighting factor of ith volume element of the core (i.e. cient neutron transport calculation from defined core source region
the twentieth of fuel pin height): to the selected ex-core detector. Spatial source region boundary
 depends on the required accuracy of the calculation. However,
Wi = w(→ r) dV (6) reduction in uncertainty below a given threshold can be unreason-
Vi able because of high computation time demands. The geometric
and Pi is the corresponding relative power of this volume: bounds of the source region set in the model cover all of those
 fuel pin elements whose weights exceed 0.5% of the calculated
Pi = p0 (→ r) dV (7) maximum weighting factor value. The total number of fuel assem-
Vi blies to be taken into account is 54, see Fig. 1. The calculation
of weighting functions presented in this paper was performed
3. The calculation method for a boron-lined proportional counter CPNB44 installed at the
3rd unit of NPP Jaslovské Bohunice. This source-range ionization
Considering the complicated geometry of the space between chamber is used for the start-up reactivity measurements. Nuclear
the core volume elements and the ex-core detector, reliable neu- data used in the MCNP calculations were mainly based on the
tron transport calculation can only be performed using a technique ENDF/B-VI library.
228 G. Farkas et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Design 261 (2013) 226–231

In order to minimize the variance as well as CPU time, a combi-

nation of the following variance reduction techniques was applied:

• cut-off energies,
• source variable biasing,
• spatial importance treatment in the space between the core and
the ex-core detector.

5. The results

The paper presents selected calculational results of the axial and

horizontal weighting factor distribution in the source region of the
core. The weighting factor values were calculated in 2478 source
elements in total. Obtained statistical uncertainty (average relative
standard deviation) was 1.57%. Approximation of analytical func-
tion was performed in the axial direction so far. Weighting factor
distribution in the horizontal direction is shown for two selected
core layers.

5.1. Axial weighting factor distribution

Axial weighting factor distribution was calculated in the source

fuel pins of the core. In the calculation, 193 source pins were con-
sidered all together (for details see Section 5.2). Those pins are
distributed in a quasi-regular grid which covers 54 fuel assemblies
of the core, see Fig. 1. Axial functions of four selected fuel assembly
source pins are presented in this paper. The objective of the axial
approximation was to find an analytical function which properly
describes weighting factor distribution in vertical direction that is
along the source fuel pins. Different approximation functions were
investigated and the following polynomial function was proposed
as the most appropriate one:
wa (z) = a0 + a1 z + a2 z 2 + · · · + aM z M ,
where wa (z) is axial weighting function of ex-core detector related
to a given fuel pin, z – height coordinate of a pin element (fractional
distance between the central plane of symmetry of the core and
the centre of pin element, the value is positive above the plane of
symmetry), a0 , . . ., aM are approximation constants (Fig. 2).
Degree of the polynomial function depends on the position of
given source pins in the core. It changes from a degree of 8 for closer
peripheral pins up to a degree of 4 for distant ones. Indexing of fuel
assemblies is shown in Fig. 3 and fuel pins in Fig. 4.
Another application of the axial approximation is the smoothing
of calculated MCNP weighing factor values for a horizontal approx-
imation. The aim is to improve the quality of approximation in
horizontal direction (in a given layer of the core). In terms of this
procedure the horizontal approximation is applied not on the cal-
culated weighting factor values, but on the axially smoothed values
(Fig. 5).
Weighted least square method (WLSM) was chosen for the verti-
cal fitting (Press et al., 1992; Vetterling et al., 1992). Fitting program
based on the WLSM uses Single Value Decomposition method (SVD)
to determine optimal approximation constants values arising from
Eq. (8). The program performs weighted fitting, which means that
points having smaller variance will appear in the approximation
with higher statistical weight. This minimization can be expressed
by the following formula:
 M  selected layers of the twentieth of fuel pin height. The first layer

N
Wi − a Z (z )
k=0 k k i
2 = → min,
i
i=1
where 2 is the chi-square, Wi – the calculated weighting fac-
tor value of data point zi ,  i – the standard deviation of the ith
data point, ak are approximation parameters, Zk (zi ) – arbitrary fixed
functions of zi , called the basis functions.
Fig. 2. Horizontal and vertical section of the VVER-440 model in MCNP5.
(8)
The shapes of approximation curves correspond to the theoret-
ically expected weighting factor distribution in vertical direction.
As it follows from Fig. 6, the axial weighting factor distribution in
the closest pin (−11,4,070) to the ex-core detector as well as in the
selected close pin (−10,4,065) is described by a polynomial func-
tion of the 8th order, which is a typical “bell” curve. With respect
to the distant pin (−4,−7,127), axial distribution is expressed by
a polynomial function of the 4th order with the shape of “arc”
curve. Distribution in the medium-distant pin (−8,6,065), given by
a polynomial function of the 6th order, shows transient charac-
ter between the above two curve shapes. Extension of the curves
that is increase in the FWHM (Full Width at Half Maximum) with
increasing distance of a given fuel pin from the ex-core detector is
mainly caused by geometrical reasons. In the case of distant pins,
the distance ratio of middle and upper/lower pin elements from
the ex-core detector is smaller than for closer pins. Axial curves are
symmetrical in respect of the middle plane of symmetry of the core
because of symmetrical ex-core detector positioning. Axial weight-
ing factor distribution of selected two fuel assembly source pins are
shown in Figs. 7 and 8.
5.2. Horizontal weighting factor distribution
The paper presents computational results obtained for two
(No. 11) is situated immediately above the central plane of sym-
(9)
metry of the core. The second one (No. 20) is the upper peripheral
layer of the core. As it was mentioned earlier, the twentieths of
fuel pins were selected in such a way that they cover the model
in a quasi regular grid. At average, 3 or 4 twentieths of fuel pins
(elements) were calculated for each fuel assembly, with the excep-
tion of peripheral core region being closest to the ex-core detector
 G. Farkas et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Design 261 (2013) 226–231
Fig. 3. Indexing of fuel assemblies in the core.
where 5–7 elements per assembly were selected. All together 193
fuel pin elements were calculated.
The horizontal weighting factor distribution for two selected
layers of the core is shown in Figs. 9 and 10. From the obtained
distributions results:
Fig. 5. Plots from 3D whole-core VVER-440 model in MCNP5.
229
Fig. 4. Numbering of fuel pins in the fuel assembly.
• the major portion of the ex-core detector response is determined
by a few peripheral fuel assemblies located in the closest vicinity
of the ex-core detector,
• the weighting factor values vary significantly within a given fuel
assembly,
• the difference between the minimal and maximal weighting
factor value in the given fuel assembly is within one order of
magnitude,
• in the closest fuel assembly region to the ex-core detector, in the
direction from the maximum weight position to the core centre,
approximately eight-fold decrease of weighting factor values is
observed,
• based on the weighting factor distribution in the given layers it
can be expected that horizontal weighting function will “warp”
in the upper and lower part of the source region, i.e. their values
will not be mainly determined by the distance from the ex-core
detector,
• weighting contribution of the closest 20 peripheral fuel assem-
blies to the ex-core detector signal represents 92% from the sum
of the core weighting factor values,
230 G. Farkas et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Design 261 (2013) 226–231

1,2 Pin (-11,4,070) - MCNP

Pin (-11,4,070) - Fit
Pin (-10,4,065) - MCNP
1,0 Pin (-10,4,065) - Fit
Relative Weighting Factor

Pin (-4,-7,127) - MCNP

Pin (-4,-7,127) - Fit
Pin (-8,6,065) - MCNP
0,8 Pin (-8,6,065) - Fit

0,6

0,4

0,2

0,0
0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7 0,8 0,9 1
Fractional Core Height

Fig. 6. Relative axial weighting factors of four selected fuel assembly pins.

3,0E-05
Pin 070 - MCNP
Pin 070 - Fit
Pin 065 - MCNP
2,5E-05 Pin 065 - Fit
Pin 058 - MCNP
Pin 058 - Fit
2,0E-05 Pin 127 - MCNP
Weighting Factor

Pin 127 - Fit

Pin 121 - MCNP
Pin 121 - Fit
1,5E-05 Pin 007 - MCNP
Pin 007 - Fit
Pin 001 - MCNP
1,0E-05 Pin 001 - Fit

5,0E-06 Fig. 9. Weighting factor distribution in the central layer of the core No. 11.

0,0E+00
0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7 0,8 0,9 1
Fractional Core Height

Fig. 7. Axial weighting factors of the fuel assembly (−11,4) source pins.

• it can be expected that the horizontal weighting function will

have a character of exponential polynomial function of the
3rd–8th order of magnitude, generally expressed by Eq. (10)
while Eq. (11) can be designed as a specific form.

⎛ ⎞

K

L

wh (x, y) = exp ⎝ aij xi yj ⎠ (10)

i=0 j=0

6,0E-07
Pin 127 - MCNP
Pin 127 - Fit
Pin 127 - MCNP
5,0E-07 Pin 127 - Fit
Pin 065 - MCNP
Pin 065 - Fit
Weighting Factor

4,0E-07 Pin 058 - MCNP

Pin 058 - Fit
Pin 001 - MCNP
Pin 001 - Fit
3,0E-07

2,0E-07

1,0E-07

0,0E+00
0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7 0,8 0,9 1
Fig. 10. Weighting factor distribution in the upper peripheral layer of the core
Fractional Core Height No. 20.

Fig. 8. Axial weighting factors of the fuel assembly (−4,−7) source pins.
 G. Farkas et al. / Nuclear Engineering and Design 261 (2013) 226–231
wh (x, y) = exp (a0 + a1 x + a2 y + a3 x2 + a4 xy + a5 y2 + a6 x3
+ a7 y3 + a8 x4 + a9 y4 + a10 x5 + a11 y5 + a12 x6 + a13 y6 ),
(11)
where wh (x,y) is the horizontal weighting function of the ex-core
detector related to a given core layer, x,y are the coordinates of a pin
element (fractional distance between the central plane of symme-
try of the core and the centre of pin element, the value is positive
above the plane of symmetry), aij , resp. a0 , . . ., a13 – approximation
constants.
6. Conclusion
Present practice still points out the need for the determina-
tion of spatial weighting functions of ex-core detectors. The exact
knowledge of these functions can be very useful for the solving of
various reactor physical, operational and safety problems especially
for interpretation of reloads start-up measurements. The objective
of the work was to present the methodology for determination of
231
weighting factors and functions at the twentieth of fuel pins level
using Monte Carlo computational approach. This can be achieved
even within a statistical uncertainty of 1% at acceptable CPU time.
The calculational results show that the major portion of the VVER-
440 ex-core detector response (more than 90%) is attributed to less
than 20 fuel assemblies being located closest to the given detector
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