Bias in Dynamic Monte Carlo Alpha Calculations

Conference · Fri Feb 06 00:00:00 EST 2015

OSTI ID:1169684

Sweezy, Jeremy Ed ^[1]; Nolen, Steven Douglas ^[1]; Adams, Terry R. ^[1]; Trahan, Travis John ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

A 1/N bias in the estimate of the neutron time-constant (commonly denoted as α) has been seen in dynamic neutronic calculations performed with MCATK. In this paper we show that the bias is most likely caused by taking the logarithm of a stochastic quantity. We also investigate the known bias due to the particle population control method used in MCATK. We conclude that this bias due to the particle population control method is negligible compared to other sources of bias.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1169684
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-15-20873; TRN: US1600049
• Resource Relation: Conference: 18th Biennial Nuclear Explosives Code Development Conference (NECDC), Los Alamos, NM (United States), 20-24 Oct 2014
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
42 ENGINEERING
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
ERRORS
MONTE CARLO METHOD
NEUTRON TRANSPORT THEORY
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CONTROL
PARTICLES
POPULATIONS
STOCHASTIC PROCESSES
M CODES
Time Dependent Monte Carlo
MCATK