Simulations of neutron multiplicity measurements of a weapons-grade plutonium sphere with MCNP-PoliMi.
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
- Polytechnic of Milan, Italy
With increasing concern over the ability to detect and characterize special nuclear materials, the need for computer codes that can successfully predict the response of detector systems to various measurement scenarios is extremely important. These computer algorithms need to be benchmarked against a variety of experimental configurations to ensure their accuracy and understand their limitations. The Monte Carlo code MCNP-PoliMi is a modified version of the MCNP-4c code. Recently these modifications have been ported into the new MCNPX 2.6.0 code, which gives the new MCNPX-PoliMi a wider variety of options and abilities, taking advantage of the improvements made to MCNPX. To verify the ability of the MCNPX-PoliMi code to simulate the response of a neutron multiplicity detector simulated results were compared to experimental data. The experiment consisted of a 4.5-kg sphere of alpha-phase plutonium that was moderated with various thicknesses of polyethylene. The results showed that our code system can simulate the multiplicity distributions with relatively good agreement with measured data. The enhancements made to MCNP since the release of MCNP-4c have had little to no effect on the ability of the MCNP-PoliMi to resolve the discrepancies observed in the simulated neutron multiplicity distributions when compared experimental data.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Albuquerque, NM, and Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 1020361
- Report Number(s):
- SAND2010-3776C; TRN: US1103734
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Proposed for presentation at the INMM 51st Annual Meeting held July 11-15, 2010 in Baltimore, MD.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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