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Title: Enhancements to the MCNP6 background source

Journal Article · · Nuclear Technology
DOI:https://doi.org/10.13182/NT14-134· OSTI ID:1235894
 [1];  [1]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

The particle transport code MCNP has been used to produce a background radiation data file on a worldwide grid that can easily be sampled as a source in the code. Location-dependent cosmic showers were modeled by Monte Carlo methods to produce the resulting neutron and photon background flux at 2054 locations around Earth. An improved galactic-cosmic-ray feature was used to model the source term as well as data from multiple sources to model the transport environment through atmosphere, soil, and seawater. A new elevation scaling feature was also added to the code to increase the accuracy of the cosmic neutron background for user locations with off-grid elevations. Furthermore, benchmarking has shown the neutron integral flux values to be within experimental error.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1235894
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-14-29240
Journal Information:
Nuclear Technology, Vol. 192, Issue 3; ISSN 0029-5450
Publisher:
American Nuclear Society (ANS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English