SCALE-4: An Improved Computational System for Spent-Fuel Cask Analysis

Accurate criticality, shielding, and heat transfer analysis of shipping casks containing spent fuel or high-level waste (HLW) can be a challenging endeavor. In the 1960s and 1970s, this analysis experience was sometimes more frustrating than challenging. Accurate analysis typically mandated the use of large, complex computer codes that often required preprocessing of physics data, provided limited geometry modeling capabilities, and were designed for use by computational expens. The Transportation Branch of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recognized the need to obtain accurate results (for license evaluation) in a consistent manner, but could not justify the staff time required to become expert code users and remain such via routine use. Thus, the NRC staff requested Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to develop a computational system that would (1) use well-established computer codes and data libraries, (2) have an input format designed for the occasional user and/or novice, (3) combine and automate analyses requiring multiple computer codes or calculations into standard analytic sequences, and ( 4) be well documented and publicly available.