Adequacy of the 123-group cross-section library for criticality analyses of water-moderated uranium systems

In a recent criticality analysis for an array of water-moderated packages containing highly enriched uranium, the 123-group cross-section library in the SCALE system was observed to have a nonconservative discrepancy of approximately 3 to 3.5% when compared with more recently developed libraries. A simple representative system of UO{sub 2}F{sub 2}-H{sub 2}O was used to identify that the problem results from a lack of resonance data for {sup 235}U. Only a single set of self-shielded cross sections, most likely corresponding to a water-moderated infinite dilute system, was provided with the original data. The UO{sub 2}F{sub 2}-H{sub 2}O study indicates that this limitation may cause nonconservative discrepancies as high as 5.5% for some water-moderated, highly enriched uranium systems. Characteristics of the systems where the discrepancy is evident are identified and discussed.