Uncertainty analyses of spent nuclear fuel decay heat calculations using SCALE modules

On the estimation of nuclide inventory and decay heat: a review from the EURAD European project

In this work, a study dedicated to the characterization of the neutronics aspect of the Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF), as part of the European project EURAD (Work Package 8), is presented. Both measured nuclide concentrations from Post Irradiation Examination samples and decay heat from calorimetric measurements are compared to simulations performed by different partners of the project. Based on these detailed studies and data from the published literature, recommendations are proposed with respect to best practices for SNF modelling, as well as biases and uncertainties for a number of important nuclides and the SNF decay heat for a cooling period from 1 to 1000 years. Finally, specific needs are presented for the improvement of current code prediction capabilities.