Further Validation and Verification of ARCADIA v1.20 Based on the TVA Watts Bar Unit 1 Benchmark, Exercises 1 to 3

For Framatome it is important that the already rich validation and verification (V&V) database of Framatome’s ARCADIA code system is further enhanced to maintain our quality standards and demonstrate the capabilities of our tools. The Watts Bar Unit 1 (WB1) multi-physics multi-cycle depletion benchmark is based on real nuclear power plant data and is widely being used to validate nuclear simulation codes. Therefore, it can be used to further enhance the ARCADIA V&V matrix. Recently, version 1.20 of ARCADIA was released. This paper presents updated results of the calculation of the first three exercises of the WB1 benchmark using this recent version of the ARCADIA code system. The exercises are validation of a cycle 1 stand-alone 3-D neutronics model at hot zero power conditions, verification of a cycle 1 multi-physics steady-state model for hot full power conditions, and validation of a cycle 1 multi-physics depletion model. The mentioned exercises were already calculated with ARCADIA version 1.19 and previously presented. The fuel assembly cross-sections are calculated using the lattice physics code APOLLO2-A, while the core is simulated with ARTEMIS, a 3D core simulator with thermal-hydraulic feedback from the code COBRA-FLX.