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Title: Correlated Production and Analog Transport of Fission Neutrons and Photons Using Fission Models FREYA, FIFRELIN, and the Monte Carlo Code TRIPOLI-4

Abstract

Fission modeling in general-purpose Monte Carlo transport codes often relies on average nuclear data provided by the international evaluation libraries. As such, only average fission multiplicities are available and correlations between fission neutrons and photons are missing. Whereas uncorrelated fission physics is usually sufficient for standard reactor core and radiation shielding calculations, correlated fission secondaries are required for specialized nuclear instrumentation and detector modeling. For coincidence counting detector optimization for instance, the precise simulation of fission neutrons and photons that remain correlated in time from birth to detection is essential. New developments were recently integrated into the Monte Carlo transport code TRIPOLI-4 to model fission physics more precisely, the purpose being to access event-by-event fission events from two different fission models: Fission Reaction Event Yield Algorithm (FREYA) and Fission Fragment Evaporation Leading to an Investigation of Nuclear Data (FIFRELIN). TRIPOLI-4 simulations can now be performed, either by connecting via an application programming interface to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory fission library including FREYA, or by reading the external fission event data files produced by FIFRELIN beforehand. These new capabilities enable us to easily compare results from the Monte Carlo transport calculations using the two fission models in a nuclear instrumentationmore » application. In the first part of this paper, the broad underlying principles of the two fission models are recalled. We then present the experimental measurements of neutron angular correlations for 252 Cf(sf) and 240 Pu(sf). The correlations were measured for several neutron kinetic energy thresholds. In the latter part of this paper, simulation results are compared with the experimental data. Spontaneous fissions in 252 Cf and 240 Pu are modeled by FREYA or FIFRELIN. Emitted neutrons and photons are subsequently transported to an array of scintillators by TRIPOLI-4 in the analog mode to preserve their correlations. Angular correlations between fission neutrons obtained independently from these TRIPOLI-4 simulations, using either FREYA or FIFRELIN, are compared with the experimental results. In conclusion, for 240 Pu(sf), the measured correlations were used to tune one of the FREYA model parameters. Similarly, different sets of parameters have been tested in FIFRELIN to try to improve the agreement with the experimental data.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [3]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States). Nuclear and Chemical Sciences Division
  2. Univ. Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette (France). Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives
  3. Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA), Saint-Paul-lès-Durance (France)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
OSTI Identifier:
1491634
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-739349
Journal ID: ISSN 0018-9499; 892824
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-07NA27344
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 65; Journal Issue: 9; Journal ID: ISSN 0018-9499
Publisher:
IEEE
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; 97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING; Neutrons; Correlation; Detectors; Monte Carlo methods; Photonics; Data models; Kinetic energy; Elementary particle; nuclear measurements; statistical analysis

Citation Formats

Verbeke, Jerome M., Petit, Odile, Litaize, Olivier, and Chebboubi, Abdelhazize. Correlated Production and Analog Transport of Fission Neutrons and Photons Using Fission Models FREYA, FIFRELIN, and the Monte Carlo Code TRIPOLI-4. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1109/TNS.2018.2825646.
Verbeke, Jerome M., Petit, Odile, Litaize, Olivier, & Chebboubi, Abdelhazize. Correlated Production and Analog Transport of Fission Neutrons and Photons Using Fission Models FREYA, FIFRELIN, and the Monte Carlo Code TRIPOLI-4. United States. https://doi.org/10.1109/TNS.2018.2825646
Verbeke, Jerome M., Petit, Odile, Litaize, Olivier, and Chebboubi, Abdelhazize. Wed . "Correlated Production and Analog Transport of Fission Neutrons and Photons Using Fission Models FREYA, FIFRELIN, and the Monte Carlo Code TRIPOLI-4". United States. https://doi.org/10.1109/TNS.2018.2825646. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1491634.
@article{osti_1491634,
title = {Correlated Production and Analog Transport of Fission Neutrons and Photons Using Fission Models FREYA, FIFRELIN, and the Monte Carlo Code TRIPOLI-4},
author = {Verbeke, Jerome M. and Petit, Odile and Litaize, Olivier and Chebboubi, Abdelhazize},
abstractNote = {Fission modeling in general-purpose Monte Carlo transport codes often relies on average nuclear data provided by the international evaluation libraries. As such, only average fission multiplicities are available and correlations between fission neutrons and photons are missing. Whereas uncorrelated fission physics is usually sufficient for standard reactor core and radiation shielding calculations, correlated fission secondaries are required for specialized nuclear instrumentation and detector modeling. For coincidence counting detector optimization for instance, the precise simulation of fission neutrons and photons that remain correlated in time from birth to detection is essential. New developments were recently integrated into the Monte Carlo transport code TRIPOLI-4 to model fission physics more precisely, the purpose being to access event-by-event fission events from two different fission models: Fission Reaction Event Yield Algorithm (FREYA) and Fission Fragment Evaporation Leading to an Investigation of Nuclear Data (FIFRELIN). TRIPOLI-4 simulations can now be performed, either by connecting via an application programming interface to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory fission library including FREYA, or by reading the external fission event data files produced by FIFRELIN beforehand. These new capabilities enable us to easily compare results from the Monte Carlo transport calculations using the two fission models in a nuclear instrumentation application. In the first part of this paper, the broad underlying principles of the two fission models are recalled. We then present the experimental measurements of neutron angular correlations for 252 Cf(sf) and 240 Pu(sf). The correlations were measured for several neutron kinetic energy thresholds. In the latter part of this paper, simulation results are compared with the experimental data. Spontaneous fissions in 252 Cf and 240 Pu are modeled by FREYA or FIFRELIN. Emitted neutrons and photons are subsequently transported to an array of scintillators by TRIPOLI-4 in the analog mode to preserve their correlations. Angular correlations between fission neutrons obtained independently from these TRIPOLI-4 simulations, using either FREYA or FIFRELIN, are compared with the experimental results. In conclusion, for 240 Pu(sf), the measured correlations were used to tune one of the FREYA model parameters. Similarly, different sets of parameters have been tested in FIFRELIN to try to improve the agreement with the experimental data.},
doi = {10.1109/TNS.2018.2825646},
journal = {IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science},
number = 9,
volume = 65,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Apr 11 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Wed Apr 11 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

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Fig. 1 Fig. 1: Photograph of the 77 liquid scintillator array on low mass floor.

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