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Title: Validation of MCNP6.1 for Criticality Safety of Pu-Metal, -Solution, and -Oxide Systems

Abstract

Guidance is offered to the Los Alamos National Laboratory Nuclear Criticality Safety division towards developing an Upper Subcritical Limit (USL) for MCNP6.1 calculations with ENDF/B-VII.1 nuclear data for three classes of problems: Pu-metal, -solution, and -oxide systems. A benchmark suite containing 1,086 benchmarks is prepared, and a sensitivity/uncertainty (S/U) method with a generalized linear least squares (GLLS) data adjustment is used to reject outliers, bringing the total to 959 usable benchmarks. For each class of problem, S/U methods are used to select relevant experimental benchmarks, and the calculational margin is computed using extreme value theory. A portion of the margin of sub criticality is defined considering both a detection limit for errors in codes and data and uncertainty/variability in the nuclear data library. The latter employs S/U methods with a GLLS data adjustment to find representative nuclear data covariances constrained by integral experiments, which are then used to compute uncertainties in keff from nuclear data. The USLs for the classes of problems are as follows: Pu metal, 0.980; Pu solutions, 0.973; dry Pu oxides, 0.978; dilute Pu oxide-water mixes, 0.970; and intermediate-spectrum Pu oxide-water mixes, 0.953.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1131001
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-14-23352
DOE Contract Number:  
AC52-06NA25396
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING; 73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS

Citation Formats

Kiedrowski, Brian C., Conlin, Jeremy Lloyd, Favorite, Jeffrey A., Kahler, III, Albert C., Kersting, Alyssa R., Parsons, Donald K., and Walker, Jessie L. Validation of MCNP6.1 for Criticality Safety of Pu-Metal, -Solution, and -Oxide Systems. United States: N. p., 2014. Web. doi:10.2172/1131001.
Kiedrowski, Brian C., Conlin, Jeremy Lloyd, Favorite, Jeffrey A., Kahler, III, Albert C., Kersting, Alyssa R., Parsons, Donald K., & Walker, Jessie L. Validation of MCNP6.1 for Criticality Safety of Pu-Metal, -Solution, and -Oxide Systems. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1131001
Kiedrowski, Brian C., Conlin, Jeremy Lloyd, Favorite, Jeffrey A., Kahler, III, Albert C., Kersting, Alyssa R., Parsons, Donald K., and Walker, Jessie L. 2014. "Validation of MCNP6.1 for Criticality Safety of Pu-Metal, -Solution, and -Oxide Systems". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1131001. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1131001.
@article{osti_1131001,
title = {Validation of MCNP6.1 for Criticality Safety of Pu-Metal, -Solution, and -Oxide Systems},
author = {Kiedrowski, Brian C. and Conlin, Jeremy Lloyd and Favorite, Jeffrey A. and Kahler, III, Albert C. and Kersting, Alyssa R. and Parsons, Donald K. and Walker, Jessie L.},
abstractNote = {Guidance is offered to the Los Alamos National Laboratory Nuclear Criticality Safety division towards developing an Upper Subcritical Limit (USL) for MCNP6.1 calculations with ENDF/B-VII.1 nuclear data for three classes of problems: Pu-metal, -solution, and -oxide systems. A benchmark suite containing 1,086 benchmarks is prepared, and a sensitivity/uncertainty (S/U) method with a generalized linear least squares (GLLS) data adjustment is used to reject outliers, bringing the total to 959 usable benchmarks. For each class of problem, S/U methods are used to select relevant experimental benchmarks, and the calculational margin is computed using extreme value theory. A portion of the margin of sub criticality is defined considering both a detection limit for errors in codes and data and uncertainty/variability in the nuclear data library. The latter employs S/U methods with a GLLS data adjustment to find representative nuclear data covariances constrained by integral experiments, which are then used to compute uncertainties in keff from nuclear data. The USLs for the classes of problems are as follows: Pu metal, 0.980; Pu solutions, 0.973; dry Pu oxides, 0.978; dilute Pu oxide-water mixes, 0.970; and intermediate-spectrum Pu oxide-water mixes, 0.953.},
doi = {10.2172/1131001},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1131001}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue May 13 00:00:00 EDT 2014},
month = {Tue May 13 00:00:00 EDT 2014}
}