SKB (Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB) in 2011 applied to the Swedish government for approval of a proposed solution for disposal of used fuel from Swedish nuclear power reactors and some relatively minor quantities of other fissile material.
This Technical Note contains results of a recent review of the SKB methods used to determine the influence of reactor depletion on keff of intact PWR fuel in an intact PWR copper canister flooded with water.
The review has, as far as possible, been based on general information in the licensing application, as opposed to the selected (and possibly modified) information in the criticality safety evaluation. The review calculation methods (computer codes and cross-section data) have been different than the methods used by SKB, but there are some common error sources. The review method validation is primarily based on keff and reactivity benchmarks rather on composition benchmarks as used by SKB.