Neutron source in the MCNPX shielding calculating for electron accelerator driven facility
- Nuclear Engineering Div., Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL 60439 (United States)
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) of USA and Kharkov Inst. of Physics and Technology (KIPT) of Ukraine have been collaborating on the design development of an experimental neutron source facility. It is an accelerator driven system (ADS) utilizing a subcritical assembly driven by electron accelerator. The facility will be utilized for performing basic and applied nuclear researches, producing medical isotopes, and training young nuclear specialists. Monte Carlo code MCNPX has been utilized as a design tool due to its capability to transport electrons, photons, and neutrons at high energies. However the facility shielding calculations with MCNPX need enormous computational resources and the small neutron yield per electron makes sampling difficulty for the Monte Carlo calculations. A method, based on generating and utilizing neutron source file, was proposed and tested. This method reduces significantly the required computer resources and improves the statistics of the calculated neutron dose outside the shield boundary. However the statistical errors introduced by generating the neutron source were not directly represented in the results, questioning the validity of this methodology, because an insufficiently sampled neutron source can cause error on the calculated neutron dose. This paper presents a procedure for the validation of the generated neutron source file. The impact of neutron source statistic on the neutron dose is examined by calculating the neutron dose as a function of the number of electron particles used for generating the neutron source files. When the value of the calculated neutron dose converges, it means the neutron source has scored sufficient records and statistic does not have apparent impact on the calculated neutron dose. In this way, the validity of neutron source and the shield analyses could be verified. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, Inc., 555 N. Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, Illinois 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22105652
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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