He Spring2016camp Meeting Was Hosted by Fanronapril26ththrough the 28That Khalifa University

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Spring2016CAMP Meeting

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he Spring2016CAMP Meeting was hosted by FANRonApril26ththrough the 28that Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi. It was another successful CAMP meeting and a gracious “Thank You” is extended to the host members from FANR and Khalifa University.

The CAMP members were welcomed to the meeting by Mr. Al Khadouri, meeting host and Manager for International Cooperation. Representatives from over 15 of the 25 Countries in CAMP were in attendance, and the meeting was broadcast over the internet via GoToMeeting. She wished everyone a very pleasure stay in Abu Dhabi.

The CAMP members were then welcomed to the meeting by Mr. Christer Viktorsson, Director General (FANR). He reviewed FANR’s commitment to high standards for safety and security, and a basis of operation based on transparency and openness. He

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TRACE Usage Warning

Christopher Murray, USNRC

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Thermal-Hydraulics Codes NewsJanuary 2016

As part of our normal operating procedure, NRC typically shares developmental code versions of TRACE with users that request them. These versions always come with a qualification of “Use at your own risk” since they do not have assessment pedigree of the patch releases. We recently shared V5.1051 with several users to use its new features and address issues they were having. However, a severe issue was uncovered in all code versions after V5.861 that causes CCFL-defined edges to not work correctly (in general, counter-current flow can still be predicted). We want users of these more recent code versions to be aware of this issue because CCFL is such an importantphenomenon in many classes of accidents. As such, users should not be using versions after V5.861 for making important decisions unless they have checked to ensure any CCFL phenomena are being simulated correctly. We are diligently working on a fix and should have something ready soon. We apologizefor any inconvenience this may cause you in your code applications.

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Thermal-Hydraulics Codes NewsAugust 2016

Spring2016CAMP Meeting …continued from page 1

mentioned the number of international agreements established by the government of the UAE, extensive collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and with other nuclear regulatory authorities in other countries which help ensure that they are consistent with international best practices. They also may consider effort to engage stakeholders to ensure their understanding of FANR regulatory programs.

He mentioned UAE’s intent to ensure that UAE citizens are developed in nuclear technical and regulatory competencies, and that their selection of Khalifa University helps to fulfil that purpose.

He then reviewed construction of the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant facility underway by the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) which commenced in 2012, with the four reactor units being scheduled for completion in 2020. He indicated that the project at Barakah was progressing steadily with Unit 1 now more than 85 percent complete, Unit 2 more than 60 percent complete, and that Unit 3 and Unit 4 are sequentially behind in succession.

Dr. Philip Beeley, Nuclear Engineering Director ofKalifaUniversity, gave a brief overview of the University’s Nuclear Engineering program and the ongoing research, equipment, international collaborations, and facilities in support of FANR and ENEC.

Carl Thurston then welcomed the CAMP members and thanked the hosts country representatives for their efforts in providing and preparing the meeting facilities. He also stated that the general and TPC meeting minutes from the Fall 2015 CAMP meeting were completed and uploaded to NRCCodes.com. He motioned to accept the meeting minutes as uploaded and Dr. Pavel Kral, UJV, seconded the motion, and the minutes were accepted.

Mr. Thurston then gave the first technical presentation of the meeting, presenting slides for Dr. Chris Hoxie in his absence. Mr. Thurston gave a presentation on the Status of NRC Code Development. CAMP related contacts at the NRC were provided as follows:

•CAMP Program:

After 6/5/16:

•NUREG/IA:

•TRACE:

•SNAP:

•PARCS:

•RELAP5:

Mr. Thurston described the major elements of the “Reactor Core and System Analysis Code Suite”, and provided a summary of improvements. The codes included in thissuite include SNAP (platform/graphical user interface), Triton/Polaris/Helios/CASMO/Serpent and GenPMAXS (cross section library generation), PARCS & PATHS (core physics and steady state thermal hydraulics) and TRACE (reactor system thermal hydraulic analysis).

Mr. Thurston provided an overview of NRC/ISL presentations at this meeting. He then presented a high-level look at some of the recent improvements in TRACE, PARCS/PATHS/GenPMAXS, and SNAP, and announced the release of RELAP5/Mod3.3Patch05.

Lastly, Mr. Thurston reported on the use of TRACE for a variety of licensing and design certification activities, including: APR-1400, SMR, ESBWR, US-EPR, US-APWR, AP1000, ABWR, power & research/test reactor licensing actions, and Generic Safety Issue (GSI) and Rulemaking support. He reminded CAMP members that TRACE is the future of NRC safety systems thermal hydraulic analysis. To assist the NRC, he would like to see member assessments on five key areas: (1) fuel rod models, (2) spacer grid models, (3) Droplet field void fraction predictions, (4) testing of new features, e.g., higher order numeric, and (5) additional integral tests.

On behalf of Mr. Christopher Murray, Dr. Matthew Bernard gave a presentation on theTRACE Code Development Status, and announced that V5.0 Patch 5 is anticipated to be released this Fall. He showed a summary of trouble reports being tracked, and indicated that the current developmental version is 5.1013. He then reviewed major changes implemented since the last CAMP meeting, i.e., since developmental version 5.960. He concluded by discussing some of the future plans for TRACE.

Mr. Doug Barber reported on the RELAP5/MOD3.3 status. The latest full release is RELAP5/MOD3.3Patch04, which is Version 3.3iy, October 2010. The most recent developmental version is 3.3km, which fixes a bug and includes a new feature: Card 1 Option 35 for ramping between the jetmixer and branch momentum equations between void fractions of 0.3 and 0.4.

One user problem that was resolved and one that is in-work were discussed. A complete list of user problems from 1998 to date is posted on the NRCCodesSharepoint site ( In addition, 2 new code versions have been created since the Fall 2015 CAMP Meeting, and these were described. Lastly, the release of Mod3.3Patch05 was announced for May/June of 2016 (see article on Page 11).

Dr. Nathanael Hudson gave a presentation on the status of PARCS. He first discussed the recent PARCS/PATHS progress, and then provided some detail on PARCS development. He then discussed some SCALE/GenPMAXS development, followed by a discussion of PARCS assessment activities. He concluded with a summary of the on-going and future development activities.

Mr. Chester Gingrich reported to the group on the SNAP development status and updates. He began by reporting on SNAP “Core” updates and status. This was followed by a discussion of the Microsoft Word format for the Model Notebook, along with advances in the Job Stream functionality and Uncertainty Quantity tool. Additional details were provided on TRACE plug-in updates, TRACE/PARCS mapping updates, PARCS plug-in updates, and SCALE plug-in updates. He concluded by discussing ongoing development work.

Additional presentations included:

• Dr. Pavel Kral, UJV, “Member country status report on CAMP activities in the Czech Republic”
• Dr. AndriyKovtonyuk, Tractebel, “CAMP-related Activities in Belgium”
• Mr. Aleksandar Delja, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, “Status of CAMP Activities in Canada”
• Mr. Hsiung-Chih Chen, National Tsing Hua University, “Status of CAMP Activities in Taiwan”
• Mr. Joaquin Basualdo, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, “PARCS/Subchanflow/Transuranus Internal Coupling”
• Dr. ViktorSánchez, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, “Internal Coupling of TRACE with DYN3D-MG (TRADYN): Current Status”
• Dr. Sang YongLee, KINGS, “On the Development of Multi-Dimensional RELAP5with Conservative Convective Terms”
• Dr. Guido Mazzini, CVRez, “Activity of LVR15 Research Reactor using NRC codes”
• Dr. AndriyKovtonyuk, Tractebel, “Natural Circulation Benchmark”
• Dr. Andrej Prošek, Jožef Stefan Institute, “Comparison between TRACE and RELAP5 calculation of SB LOCA in PWR”
• Dr. Cesar Queral, Technical University of Madrid, “New AP1000 studies with TRACE5 patch2 and ATLAS test A5.1 SBLOCA benchmark”
• Mr. Julio Rivas Lewicky, Technical University of Madrid, “Validation and application of Almaraz NPP model.Power uprate and TRACE5 Patch1 to Patch4 transition”
• Dr. Konstantin Nikitin, BKW Engineering AG, “BWR-4 ATWS modeling with RELAP-S3K coupled code”
• Jan Frélich, TES, s.r.o, “Validation of Bubble Condenser Model in RELAP5/MELCOR”
• Mr. Petr Heralecký, TES, s.r.o, “Preliminary Post-Test Analysisof Cold Leg Small Break 4.1 %
  at PSB VVER Facility Using TRACE V5.0”
• Dr. Oleg Orlov, Amec Foster Wheeler, “Coupling of RELAP5 and Darlington NGS controllers in MOOSE”
• Dr. Ivor Clifford, Paul ScherrerInstitut, “TRACE Analysis Activities at STARS”
• Dr. Masahiro Furuya, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, “Code Validation against Boiling Two-Phase Flow Experiments in Rod Bundle”
• Dr. Matthew Bernard, US NRC, “Presentation of Advanced Code Development Activities in TRACE”

TRACE User Problems

This is a report on TRACE user problems and resolutions. Open trouble reports identified in the previous newsletters with no new progress are not discussed, but can be found in the TRACE trouble report system (TRACEZilla) on the NRC Codes website (

For the time period between January 1, 2016 and June 30, 2016, 18 new trouble reports were submitted to TRACEzilla. 35 trouble reports were either resolved or closed during this same time period. As of June 30, 2016, there were 757 trouble reports in the TRACE bug reporting system. Five of those are for the PARCS code, two are bugs for the AVScript, 14 are bugs entered to test the system, and one bug number (452) was skipped. There were 735 TRACE-specific bugs in the system at the end of the reporting period; 36 of those were open, with the remainder resolved, closed,or duplicates. This implies that ~95% of the TRACE trouble reports have been resolved or closed or duplicates.

A resolved trouble report indicates that it has been addressed with an update or documentation change that is pending. A closed trouble report indicates that it has eitherbeen addressed by successfully re-running the test problem(s) of interest with a current version of TRACE or it has been closed by incorporating a pendingupdate into the NRC developmental version of TRACE. A pending update implies that it has been tested, documented, reviewed, and submitted to the NRC, but has not been included in the developmental version ofTRACE. Inclusion of a pending update into TRACE typically requires additional review and testing by the NRC staff.

The most current developmental version of TRACE is Version 5.1062 as of June 30, 2016. Updates included in Version 5.1062 are listed on the TRACE user support web site (

New Trouble Reports Still Open

Trouble Report 742 – Problems running PARCS-coupled calculations with debug executable.

Developer reported that for a coupled PARCS/TRACE calculation with a debug executable it failed with a runtime fatal error associated with a variable used before it has been defined. Sometimes optimized compiles will run through coding that uses undefined variables. Developer reported that run time error occurred with versions 5.910 through 5.973 and also with the cleanTH update included. This trouble report is still open.

Trouble Report 743 – Incorrect HTSTR surface heat flux/power reported for HTC boundary condition..

User reported that when HTSTR boundary condition (BC) is user specified heat transfer coefficient and sink temperature, then the calculated heat flux is not consistent with the calculated surface temperature. It was determined that for this HTSTR BC option the sink temperature is loaded into array tlnr, but the routine that updates the surface heat flux uses the tlr array. The tlr array for this HTSTR BC is zero. Problem and fix has been identified, but update has not be developed. This trouble report is still open.

Trouble Report 745 – Heat structure documentation is duplicated in Users Guide Component Models in HTSTR and CHAN chapters.

Developer indicated that heat structure documentation was duplicated in the HTSTR and CHAN chapters of the Component Models User Guide. The specific example identified was documentation of the crud model. Recommendation was to only have the crud model documented in the HTSTR component documentation and have the CHAN component references the HTSTR documentation. Better references also need to be identified for the crud model documentation. This trouble report is still open.

Trouble Report 747 – Two-phase interfacial heat transfer model gives unphysical results for subcooled filling/emptying of vertical pipes.

User reported that unphysical pressure spikes were observed when running a test problem that involve filling and emptying of a vertical pipe with subcooled water. User indicated that a fix to plug flow model that went into version 5.182 was causing the problem. In earlier versions of TRACE the plug flow model was incorrectly applied to vertical tubes. The plug flow model for vertical tubes reduced the interfacial heat transfer so that pressure spikes were not observed. Applying the plug flow condensation model to vertical tubes, is not consistent with the assumptions used for the basis of this model. Investigation of this problem indicated that turning on level tracking would eliminate the pressure spikes. Level tracking only comes on for vertical PIPEs and the determination of whether a PIPE is vertical or not is based on the user input for the GRAV array. When IELV = 1 or 2, then GRAV array is not loaded until after initialization. Determination of whether or not a PIPE is vertical is completed before the GRAV array has been loaded when IELV = 1 or 2. The FxInitLtrk update has been developed to address this issue and is currently in testing. This trouble report is still open.

Trouble Report 748 – CPU time showing up in eciTest_2pipe_b.msg.

Developer reported that cpu time is in ECI test problem outputs, even when –nouniqueout TRACE command line option is used. When running the Regression test problem set, developers typically run with –nouniqueout, so that edits such as cpu time, date and time, version number, etc. do not show up in the TRACE ASCII output file. This allows diffs to identify test problems with differences in the results and not flag test problems that have slightly different cpu times. When ECI test problems are run, the test problem is spread over more than one processor and it appears that the –nouniqueout command is not duplicated on the other processors. This trouble report is still open.

Trouble Report 751 – 5.1003 with test problem mslb_trace_htrd_ss debug version of TRACE/PARCS dies with FORTRAN error.

Developer reported that debug version 5.1003 of TRAC/PARCS compiled with Intel compiler 13.1, running on Windows 7 OS with 64 bit dies with test problem mslb_trace_htrd_ss FORTRAN run time error indicating read past the end of the a PARCS input file. Test problems pbtt_trace_tr and pbtt_trace_ws also fail with a divide by zero for version 5.1003 coupled TRACE/PARCS calculation. This trouble report has been marked as a duplicate of trouble report 742. This trouble report is still open.

Trouble Report 756 – Problems with Film Condensation Model for PIPE Components

User reported that there exists differences between the CONTAN film condensation model and the TRACE PIPETYPE = 8 condensation model. There is currently no expectations that these two models would give the same results. Film thickness in the CONTAN model is based on condensation rates and film draining rates at the heat structure surface. There is no droplet interaction with the film in the CONTAN film model. The TRACE film model estimates film thickness from the local void fraction with estimated droplet volume fraction removed and assuming a vertical wall geometry. There is currently no expectations that these two models will yield the same results. This trouble report is still open.

Trouble Report 757 – Potentail problem with calls to error in SensCoefficients module.

Developer reported that is no USE ErrorInterface, ONLY: error in the SensCoefficients module. The error routine interface is only needed when optional arguments are used in calls to error. To avoid optional arguments, the developer passed a zero as the component index in the call to error. If 0 is used in genTab(0)%num to determine the component number, then the user will see a programming error message and will be requested to help the NRC debug this unexpected error. Zero should not be used as the component index, if USE ErrorInterface, ONLY: error is used at the top of this module, then calls to error can use optional arguments such as details and calledBy and the component index can be skipped in the call to error. This trouble report is still open.

Trouble Reports Closed

During the time period from January 1, 2016 to June 30, 2016, the following trouble reports have been closed. A trouble report is closed by: 1) rerunning the test problem of interest successfully with the latest version of TRACE, 2) updating documentation to address the trouble report, 3) incorporating an update into the NRC development version of TRACE. In some cases a combination of these three fixes may be used.

Trouble Report 692 – Regression test problem BWRMassErrTest has a mass error of ~9% after 1100 time steps.

Running Regression test problem BWRMassErrTest with an earlier version of TRACE indicated a significant mass error. When this test problem was run with verison 5.910 the mass error was not significant, 5.5x10-8%. This trouble report has been closed.

Trouble Report 697 – Solubility limit added as a graphics variable.

User requested that the solubility limit be added as a graphics variable. The solubility limit is a function of the liquid phase temperature. The solubility limit function can be one of two default curves or defined by user input. Update FxFillCOntan included the changes to add solubility limit as graphics variable. Update FxFillContan was included in version 5.1011, closing this trouble report.