Validity of Hansen-Roach Cross Sections in Low-Enriched Uranium Systems

Conference · Mon Sep 09 00:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:5449750

Busch, Robert D. ^[1]; O'Dell, R. Douglas ^[2]

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1. Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
2. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Within the nuclear criticality safety community, the Hansen-Roach 16 group cross section set has been the "standard"' for use in k_eff calculations over the past 30 years. Yet even with its widespread acceptance, there are still questions about its validity and adequacy, about the proper procedure for calculating the potential scattering cross section, σ_p, for uranium and plutonium, and about the concept of resonance self-shielding and its impact on cross sections. This paper attempts to address these questions. It provides a brief background on the Hansen-Roach cross sections. Next is presented a review of resonances in cross sections, self-shielding of these resonances, and the use of σ_p to characterize resonance self-shielding. Three prescriptions for calculating σ_p are given. Finally, results of several calculations of k_eff on low-enriched uranium systems are provided to confirm the validity of the Hansen-Roach cross sections when applied to such systems.

• Research Organization: Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 5449750
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-91-2347; CONF-910993-14; ON: DE91016021; TRN: 91-023872
• Resource Relation: Conference: ICNC '91: International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety , Oxford (United Kingdom), 9-13 Sep 1991
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
CRITICALITY
CROSS SECTIONS
VALIDATION
NUCLEAR DATA COLLECTIONS
PLUTONIUM
URANIUM
K CODES
MODERATORS
RESONANCE NEUTRONS
SAFETY
SHIELDING
SLIGHTLY ENRICHED URANIUM
STANDARDS
T CODES
ACTINIDES
BARYONS
COMPUTER CODES
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
ENRICHED URANIUM
FERMIONS
HADRONS
ISOTOPE ENRICHED MATERIALS
MATERIALS
METALS
NEUTRONS
NUCLEONS
TESTING
TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
KENO
SCALE/CSAS Code System
Fissionable Nuclide
Resonance Self-Shielding
Fissionable Isotope
Monte Carlo Codes
654000* - Radiation & Shielding Physics
054000 - Nuclear Fuels- Health & Safety
990200 - Mathematics & Computers