Under the fast reactor simulation program launched in April 2007, development of an advanced multigroup cross section generation code was initiated in July 2007, in conjunction with the development of the high-fidelity deterministic neutron transport code UNIC. The general objectives are to simplify the existing multi-step schemes and to improve the resolved and unresolved resonance treatments. Based on the review results of current methods and the fact that they have been applied successfully to fast critical experiment analyses and fast reactor designs for last three decades, the methodologies of the ETOE-2/MC{sup 2}-2/SDX code system were selected as the starting set of methodologies for multigroup cross section generation for fast reactor analysis. As the first step for coupling with the UNIC code and use in a parallel computing environment, the MC{sup 2}-2 code was updated by modernizing the memory structure and replacing old data management package subroutines and functions with FORTRAN 90 based routines. Various modifications were also made in the ETOE-2 and MC{sup 2}-2 codes to process the ENDF/B-VII.0 data properly. Using the updated ETOE-2/MC{sup 2}-2 code system, the ENDF/B-VII.0 data was successfully processed for major heavy and intermediate nuclides employed in sodium-cooled fast reactors. Initial verification tests of the …

This report presents the software engineering effort under way at ANL towards a comprehensive integrated computational framework (SHARP) for high fidelity simulations of sodium cooled fast reactors. The primary objective of this framework is to provide accurate and flexible analysis tools to nuclear reactor designers by simulating multiphysics phenomena happening in complex reactor geometries. Ideally, the coupling among different physics modules (such as neutronics, thermal-hydraulics, and structural mechanics) needs to be tight to preserve the accuracy achieved in each module. However, fast reactor cores in steady state mode represent a special case where weak coupling between neutronics and thermal-hydraulics is usually adequate. Our framework design allows for both options. Another requirement for SHARP framework has been to implement various coupling algorithms that are parallel and scalable to large scale since nuclear reactor core simulations are among the most memory and computationally intensive, requiring the use of leadership-class petascale platforms. This report details our progress toward achieving these goals. Specifically, we demonstrate coupling independently developed parallel codes in a manner that does not compromise performance or portability, while minimizing the impact on individual developers. This year, our focus has been on developing a lightweight and loosely coupled framework targeted at UNIC …