TY - JOUR
T1 - Monte Carlo calculation of the effective neutron generation time
AU - Verboomen, Bernard
AU - Haeck, Wim
AU - Baeten, Peter
A2 - Malambu Mbala, Edouard
A2 - Aoust, Thierry
N1 - Score = 10
PY - 2006/7
Y1 - 2006/7
N2 - The Monte Carlo calculation of the effective (i.e. adjoint weighted) neutron generation time Λeff, especially for continuous energy simulations, is not straightforward nor standard in Monte Carlo codes. The use of the non-adjoint weighted neutron generation time Λ (standard in most Monte Carlo codes) as an approximation of the effective one can lead to a serious bias. We show here that the difference between Λeff and Λ can be more than 200% for a thermal fission system (VENUS reactor, SCK-CEN, Belgium) and more than 600% for a fast fission system (MASURCA reactor, Cadarache, France). For this, we have implemented, for the first time, in the Monte
Carlo code MCNP(X), an asymptotically exact method for the calculation of Λeff. Our method was benchmarked against measurements in MASURCA: the difference between calculated and experimental values is less than 10%.
AB - The Monte Carlo calculation of the effective (i.e. adjoint weighted) neutron generation time Λeff, especially for continuous energy simulations, is not straightforward nor standard in Monte Carlo codes. The use of the non-adjoint weighted neutron generation time Λ (standard in most Monte Carlo codes) as an approximation of the effective one can lead to a serious bias. We show here that the difference between Λeff and Λ can be more than 200% for a thermal fission system (VENUS reactor, SCK-CEN, Belgium) and more than 600% for a fast fission system (MASURCA reactor, Cadarache, France). For this, we have implemented, for the first time, in the Monte
Carlo code MCNP(X), an asymptotically exact method for the calculation of Λeff. Our method was benchmarked against measurements in MASURCA: the difference between calculated and experimental values is less than 10%.
KW - effective neutron generation time
KW - Monte Carlo
KW - reactor kinetics
KW - first-order perturbation
KW - adjoint flux
UR - http://ecm.sckcen.be/OTCS/llisapi.dll/open/ezp_32358
UR - http://knowledgecentre.sckcen.be/so2/bibref/3615
U2 - 10.1016/j.anucene.2006.05.001
DO - 10.1016/j.anucene.2006.05.001
M3 - Article
SN - 0306-4549
VL - 33
SP - 911
EP - 916
JO - Annals of nuclear energy
JF - Annals of nuclear energy
IS - 10
ER -