Using Whisper-1.1 to guide improvements to nuclear data evaluations
- Monte Carlo Methods, Codes, and Applications, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States)
Along with the latest release of the general purpose Monte Carlo radiation transport code, MCNP6.2, came the first officially released version of Whisper, version 1.1, a statistical analysis code used for nuclear criticality safety (NCS) validation. The Whisper software package is primarily used to calculate the upper subcritical limit (USL) of a particular application case along with components of the margin of subcriticality (MOS). In the calculation of the MOS due to nuclear data uncertainties, Whisper uses the generalized linear-least-squares (GLLS) approach to obtain adjusted nuclear data uncertainties which are then propagated to estimate the nuclear data uncertainties in the k{sub eff} of the application. Due to the fact that Whisper contains the simulated and measured k{sub eff} values for over 1100 benchmarks, nuclear data sensitivity profiles for each benchmark along with the nuclear data covariance matrices, all of which are used in the GLLS method, it is possible to easily utilize these data available to help guide improvements to nuclear data evaluations. In the present work, the Whisper data and the GLLS method are used together to suggest an adjusted nuclear data cross section evaluation specifically for {sup 233}U such that the agreement between the calculated and experimental k{sub eff} measurements of the relevant benchmarks are improved. With this adjusted nuclear data available, feedback to the theoretical and experimental nuclear data community is provided. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22973035
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ANS NCSD 2017: Nuclear Criticality Safety Division topical meeting - Criticality safety, pushing boundaries by modernizing and integrating data, methods, and regulations, Carlsbad, NM (United States), 10-15 Sep 2017; Other Information: Country of input: France; 10 refs.; Available on CD-ROM from American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Release Notes for Whisper-1.1
User Manual for Whisper-1.1