The SARAX (System for Advance Reactor Analysis at Xi’an Jiaotong University) code system is a code system developed for the neutronics analysis of reactors and external source driven subcritical facilities with fast spectrum. It is based on the state-of-the-art computational methods and aims to service as both the industrial design tool and research tool for institutes and universities.
The development of SARAX, started in 2012 with the foundation of National Natural Science Foundation of China, was original designed for the LBE cooled ADS reactors. The version SARAX-1.0 was firstly published in the domestic reactor physics conference (CORPHY2014) in 2014, which invoked an external Monte-Carlo code to generate the homogenized cross-section.
A new cross-section generation part was completed in 2016, and the code system was extended to be available for SFR, LFR and LBE ADS reactors in the same year. In 2017, the part for sensitivity and uncertainty (S&U) analysis was developed and a new library SARALIB with adjusted nuclear data for MOX-fueled sodium fast reactor was completed for the purpose of industrial application.
Now, four main parts makes up of the SARAX code system, which includes:
-TULIP: the part for cross section generation. The ultrafine group method was adopted for the education and industrial versions. In the latter one, finer models for leakage and reactivity conservation were developed. A hybrid method was proposed and merged in the research version.
-LAVENDER: the part for core analysis in steady states, which is capable of doingkeffand power distribution calculation, depletion calculation, reactivity evaluation and fuel management etc. The SNnodal method using triangular-z mesh was used for the flux solver for all versions. The parallel capability and new solver using hexagonal-z mesh are under testing for the industrial version.
-DAISY: the part for transient analysis, which integrates transient single-channel T-H modules for sodium, lead and LBE coolant. The point kinetics method was used for the education and industrial versions with differences of dealing with the reactivity feedback. The predict-correction quasi-steady method was used for the research version.
-COLEUS: the part for S&U analysis. The calculation was based on the generalized perturbation theory. The uncertainty ofkeff, power distribution and reactivity uncertainties can be quantified. The similarity analysis and nuclear data adjustment functions have been completed in the industrial version.
The newest version is SARAX-2.0, which is a commercial version for industrial application. The system has full functions for neutronics design works and is matched with a special nuclear data library named SARALIB.
Besides, a free of charge version, as SARAX-2.0e, was simplified from the complete version, which aims to be able to perform basic calculations for SFR, and to be flexible for trying new methods. This version can be downloaded from the website and will be released in the workshop in PHYSOR2018 at Cancun.
Verifications and validations are being carried on based on the numerical benchmarks and evaluated reactor physics benchmark experiments. Results show that the code system has good accuracy and acceptable computational cost. Up to now, the code system has serviced in the projects of China demonstration fast reactor and China initiative accelerator driven subcritical system.
