The 0E2 benchmarks for PWR UO2 decay heat: an analysis from the NEA WPNCS

Dimitri A. Rochman; Francisco Alvarez-Velarde; Kelsey Amundson; John Bess; Sébastien Bonthoux; Oscar Cabellos; Coralie Carmouze; Shahab Dabiran-Zohoory; Ron Dagan; Luca Fiorito; Juan García; Lydie Giot; Fernando Gomez Salcedo; Volker Hannstein; Silja Häkkinen; Mathieu Hursin; Raphaelle Ichou; Fredrik Johansson; Pauli Juutilainen; Marjan Kromar; Sébastien Lahaye; Agnès Launay; Vincent Léger; Robert W. Mills; Ugur Mertyurek; Pedro Ortego; Sofia Portolan; Miiko Pöyhönen; Germina Procop; Pablo Romojaro; Benjamin Ruprecht; Bishal Torrente; Sven Tittelbach; Satoshi Sato; Ahmed Shama; Teodosi Simeonov; Virginie Solans; Vanessa Vallet; Alexander Vasiliev; Gasper Žerovnik

doi:10.1051/epjn/2026011

The 0E2 benchmarks for PWR UO₂ decay heat: an analysis from the NEA WPNCS

Dimitri A. Rochman^*
, Francisco Alvarez-Velarde
, Kelsey Amundson
, John Bess
, Sébastien Bonthoux
, Oscar Cabellos
, Coralie Carmouze
, Shahab Dabiran-Zohoory
, Ron Dagan
, Luca Fiorito
, Juan García
, Lydie Giot
, Fernando Gomez Salcedo
, Volker Hannstein
, Silja Häkkinen
, Mathieu Hursin
, Raphaelle Ichou
, Fredrik Johansson
, Pauli Juutilainen
, Marjan Kromar

Sébastien Lahaye, Agnès Launay, Vincent Léger, Robert W. Mills, Ugur Mertyurek, Pedro Ortego, Sofia Portolan, Miiko Pöyhönen, Germina Procop, Pablo Romojaro, Benjamin Ruprecht, Bishal Torrente, Sven Tittelbach, Satoshi Sato, Ahmed Shama, Teodosi Simeonov, Virginie Solans, Vanessa Vallet, Alexander Vasiliev, Gasper Žerovnik

^*Corresponding author for this work

BA4501 Reactor analysis

Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI)
National Cooperative for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste (NAGRA)
Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT)
OECD Nuclear Energy Agengy (NEA)
JFoster & Associates
French Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Authority (ASNR)
Technical University of Madrid
CEA Grenoble
Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe
Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK CEN)
University of Nantes
Empresa Nacional de Residuos Radiactivos, S.A. (Enresa)
BGZ Gesellschaft für Zwischenlagerung mbH
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management (SKB)
Jožef Stefan Institute
Orano Group
National Nuclear Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
Science Engineering Associates S.L.
Bundesamt für die Sicherheit der nuklearen Entsorgung (BASE)
Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI)
Studsvik Scandpower Inc
CEA Cadarache

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review

Abstract

This paper presents the work performed in the subgroup 16 of the Working Party for Nuclear Criticality Safety (WPNCS) of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency. The main goal was to define two decay heat benchmarks for Spent Nuclear Fuel (one pincell and one assembly), perform calculations and compare and analyze the results in light of existing calorimetric measurements. The selected case is the PWR UO 2 assembly 0E2, irradiated at the Ringhals-3 reactor and measured at the Clab facility in Sweden. In total, 21 institutes worldwide participated to the exercise, leading to 55 calculated results (named C ). It was found that the measured decay heat values ( E ) can be satisfactorily reproduced with two-dimensional assembly calculations, leading to an average C / E value of 0.99, with an uncertainty (or one standard deviation) of ±0.01.

Original language	English
Article number	20
Journal	EPJ Nuclear Sciences & Technologies
Volume	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1051/epjn/2026011
Publication status	Published - 19 Jun 2026
MoE publication type	A1 Journal article-refereed

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Rochman, D. A., Alvarez-Velarde, F., Amundson, K., Bess, J., Bonthoux, S., Cabellos, O., Carmouze, C., Dabiran-Zohoory, S., Dagan, R., Fiorito, L., García, J., Giot, L., Gomez Salcedo, F., Hannstein, V., Häkkinen, S., Hursin, M., Ichou, R., Johansson, F., Juutilainen, P., ... Žerovnik, G. (2026). The 0E2 benchmarks for PWR UO₂ decay heat: an analysis from the NEA WPNCS. EPJ Nuclear Sciences & Technologies, 12, Article 20. https://doi.org/10.1051/epjn/2026011

@article{7c3c52de02e54ae98f55cb5d1544d0bc,

title = "The 0E2 benchmarks for PWR UO2 decay heat: an analysis from the NEA WPNCS",

abstract = " This paper presents the work performed in the subgroup 16 of the Working Party for Nuclear Criticality Safety (WPNCS) of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency. The main goal was to define two decay heat benchmarks for Spent Nuclear Fuel (one pincell and one assembly), perform calculations and compare and analyze the results in light of existing calorimetric measurements. The selected case is the PWR UO 2 assembly 0E2, irradiated at the Ringhals-3 reactor and measured at the Clab facility in Sweden. In total, 21 institutes worldwide participated to the exercise, leading to 55 calculated results (named C ). It was found that the measured decay heat values ( E ) can be satisfactorily reproduced with two-dimensional assembly calculations, leading to an average C / E value of 0.99, with an uncertainty (or one standard deviation) of ±0.01. ",

author = "Rochman, \{Dimitri A.\} and Francisco Alvarez-Velarde and Kelsey Amundson and John Bess and S{\'e}bastien Bonthoux and Oscar Cabellos and Coralie Carmouze and Shahab Dabiran-Zohoory and Ron Dagan and Luca Fiorito and Juan Garc{\'i}a and Lydie Giot and \{Gomez Salcedo\}, Fernando and Volker Hannstein and Silja H{\"a}kkinen and Mathieu Hursin and Raphaelle Ichou and Fredrik Johansson and Pauli Juutilainen and Marjan Kromar and S{\'e}bastien Lahaye and Agn{\`e}s Launay and Vincent L{\'e}ger and Mills, \{Robert W.\} and Ugur Mertyurek and Pedro Ortego and Sofia Portolan and Miiko P{\"o}yh{\"o}nen and Germina Procop and Pablo Romojaro and Benjamin Ruprecht and Bishal Torrente and Sven Tittelbach and Satoshi Sato and Ahmed Shama and Teodosi Simeonov and Virginie Solans and Vanessa Vallet and Alexander Vasiliev and Gasper {\v Z}erovnik",

year = "2026",

month = jun,

day = "19",

doi = "10.1051/epjn/2026011",

language = "English",

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Rochman, DA, Alvarez-Velarde, F, Amundson, K, Bess, J, Bonthoux, S, Cabellos, O, Carmouze, C, Dabiran-Zohoory, S, Dagan, R, Fiorito, L, García, J, Giot, L, Gomez Salcedo, F, Hannstein, V, Häkkinen, S, Hursin, M, Ichou, R, Johansson, F, Juutilainen, P, Kromar, M, Lahaye, S, Launay, A, Léger, V, Mills, RW, Mertyurek, U, Ortego, P, Portolan, S, Pöyhönen, M, Procop, G, Romojaro, P, Ruprecht, B, Torrente, B, Tittelbach, S, Sato, S, Shama, A, Simeonov, T, Solans, V, Vallet, V, Vasiliev, A & Žerovnik, G 2026, 'The 0E2 benchmarks for PWR UO₂ decay heat: an analysis from the NEA WPNCS', EPJ Nuclear Sciences & Technologies, vol. 12, 20. https://doi.org/10.1051/epjn/2026011

TY - JOUR

T1 - The 0E2 benchmarks for PWR UO2 decay heat

T2 - an analysis from the NEA WPNCS

AU - Rochman, Dimitri A.

AU - Alvarez-Velarde, Francisco

AU - Amundson, Kelsey

AU - Bess, John

AU - Bonthoux, Sébastien

AU - Cabellos, Oscar

AU - Carmouze, Coralie

AU - Dabiran-Zohoory, Shahab

AU - Dagan, Ron

AU - Fiorito, Luca

AU - García, Juan

AU - Giot, Lydie

AU - Gomez Salcedo, Fernando

AU - Hannstein, Volker

AU - Häkkinen, Silja

AU - Hursin, Mathieu

AU - Ichou, Raphaelle

AU - Johansson, Fredrik

AU - Juutilainen, Pauli

AU - Kromar, Marjan

AU - Lahaye, Sébastien

AU - Launay, Agnès

AU - Léger, Vincent

AU - Mills, Robert W.

AU - Mertyurek, Ugur

AU - Ortego, Pedro

AU - Portolan, Sofia

AU - Pöyhönen, Miiko

AU - Procop, Germina

AU - Romojaro, Pablo

AU - Ruprecht, Benjamin

AU - Torrente, Bishal

AU - Tittelbach, Sven

AU - Sato, Satoshi

AU - Shama, Ahmed

AU - Simeonov, Teodosi

AU - Solans, Virginie

AU - Vallet, Vanessa

AU - Vasiliev, Alexander

AU - Žerovnik, Gasper

PY - 2026/6/19

Y1 - 2026/6/19

N2 - This paper presents the work performed in the subgroup 16 of the Working Party for Nuclear Criticality Safety (WPNCS) of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency. The main goal was to define two decay heat benchmarks for Spent Nuclear Fuel (one pincell and one assembly), perform calculations and compare and analyze the results in light of existing calorimetric measurements. The selected case is the PWR UO 2 assembly 0E2, irradiated at the Ringhals-3 reactor and measured at the Clab facility in Sweden. In total, 21 institutes worldwide participated to the exercise, leading to 55 calculated results (named C ). It was found that the measured decay heat values ( E ) can be satisfactorily reproduced with two-dimensional assembly calculations, leading to an average C / E value of 0.99, with an uncertainty (or one standard deviation) of ±0.01.

AB - This paper presents the work performed in the subgroup 16 of the Working Party for Nuclear Criticality Safety (WPNCS) of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency. The main goal was to define two decay heat benchmarks for Spent Nuclear Fuel (one pincell and one assembly), perform calculations and compare and analyze the results in light of existing calorimetric measurements. The selected case is the PWR UO 2 assembly 0E2, irradiated at the Ringhals-3 reactor and measured at the Clab facility in Sweden. In total, 21 institutes worldwide participated to the exercise, leading to 55 calculated results (named C ). It was found that the measured decay heat values ( E ) can be satisfactorily reproduced with two-dimensional assembly calculations, leading to an average C / E value of 0.99, with an uncertainty (or one standard deviation) of ±0.01.

UR - https://www.epj-n.org/articles/epjn/full_html/2026/01/epjn20260006/epjn20260006.html

U2 - 10.1051/epjn/2026011

DO - 10.1051/epjn/2026011

M3 - Article

SN - 2491-9292

VL - 12

JO - EPJ Nuclear Sciences & Technologies

JF - EPJ Nuclear Sciences & Technologies

M1 - 20

ER -

The 0E2 benchmarks for PWR UO₂ decay heat: an analysis from the NEA WPNCS

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