Void reactivity in lead and bismuth sample reactivity experiments at Kyoto University Critical Assembly

Pyeon, C. H.*; Katano, Ryota; Oizumi, Akito; Fukushima, Masahiro

Nuclear Science and Engineering, 197(11), p.2902 - 2919, 2023/11

https://doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2023.2172311

Sample reactivity and void reactivity experiments are carried out in the solid-moderated and solid-reflected cores at the Kyoto University Critical Assembly (KUCA) with the combined use of aluminum (Al), lead (Pb) and bismuth (Bi) samples, and Al spacers simulating the void. MCNP6.2 eigenvalue calculations together with JENDL-4.0 provide good accuracy of sample reactivity with the comparison of experimental results; also experimental void reactivity is attained by using MCNP6.2 together with JENDL-4.0 and ENDF/B-VII.1 with a marked accuracy of relative difference between experiments and calculations. Uncertainty quantification of sample reactivity and void reactivity is acquired by using the sensitivity coefficients based on MCNP6.2/ksen and covariance library data of SCALE6.2 together with ENDF/B-VII.1, arising from the impact of uncertainty induced by Al, Pb and Bi cross sections. A series of reactivity analyses with the Al spacer simulating the void demonstrates the means of analyzing the void in the solid-moderated and solid-reflected cores at KUCA

Radioisotope identification algorithm using deep artificial neural network for supporting nuclear detection and first response on nuclear security incidents

Kimura, Yoshiki; Tsuchiya, Kenichi*

Radioisotopes, 72(2), p.121 - 139, 2023/07

https://doi.org/10.3769/radioisotopes.72.121

Rapid and precise radioisotope identification in the scene of nuclear detection and nuclear security incidents is one of the challenging issues for the prompt response on the detection alarm or the incidents. A radioisotope identification algorithm using a deep artificial neural network model applicable to handheld gamma-ray detectors has been proposed in the present paper. The proposed algorithm automatically identifies gamma-emitting radioisotopes based on the count contribution ratio (CCR) from each of them estimated by the deep artificial neural network model trained by simulated gamma-ray spectra. The automated radioisotope identification algorithm can support first responders of nuclear detection and nuclear security incidents without sufficient experience and knowledge in radiation measurement. The authors tested the performance of the proposed algorithm using two different types of deep artificial neural network models in application to handheld detectors having high or low energy resolution. The proposed algorithm showed high performance in identifying artificial radioisotopes for actually measured gamma-ray spectra. It was also confirmed that the algorithm is applicable to identifying U and automated uranium categorization by analyzing estimated CCRs by the deep artificial neural network models. The authors also com-pared the performance of the proposed algorithm with a conventional radioisotope identification method and discussed promising ways to improve the performance of the algorithm using the deep artificial neural network.

MCNP6 calculation of neutron flux map in the HTTR during normal operation

Ho, H. Q.; Ishitsuka, Etsuo; Iigaki, Kazuhiko

Recent Contributions to Physics, 82(3), p.16 - 20, 2022/09

https://doi.org/10.26577/RCPh.2022.v82.i3.03

Study on radioactivity evaluation method of research reactors using DORT and MCNP codes

Kochiyama, Mami; Sakai, Akihiro

JAEA-Technology 2022-009, 56 Pages, 2022/06

JAEA-Technology-2022-009.pdf:4.15MB

It is necessary to evaluate radioactivity inventory in wastes before disposal of low-level radioactive wastes generated from dismantling research reactors. It is efficient for owners of each research reactor to use a common radioactive evaluation method in order to comply with the license application for disposal facility. In this report, neutron transport and activation calculations were carried out for the Rikkyo University research reactor in order to examine a common radioactivity evaluation method for burial disposal of radioactive wastes generated by dismantling. We adopted the neutron transport codes DORT and MCNP and the activation code ORIGEN-S with cross-section libraries based on JENDL-4.0 and JENDL/AD-2017. The radioactivity concentrations obtained by the radiochemical analysis and both calculation codes were in agreement by 0.4 to 3 times. Therefore, by appropriately considering this difference, the radioactivity evaluation method by DORT, MCNP and ORIGEN-S can be applied to the radioactivity evaluation for buried disposal. In order to classify wastes from dismantling by clearance or buried disposal method according to their radioactivity levels, we also created radioactivity concentration distributions in the concrete area and graphite thermal column area.

Feasibility study on tritium recoil barrier for neutron reflectors of research and test reactors

Kenzhina, I.*; Ishitsuka, Etsuo; Ho, H. Q.; Sakamoto, Naoki*; Okumura, Keisuke; Takemoto, Noriyuki; Chikhray, Y.*

Fusion Engineering and Design, 164, p.112181_1 - 112181_5, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2020.112181

Tritium release into the primary coolant during operation of the JMTR (Japan Materials Testing Reactor) and the JRR-3M (Japan Research Reactor-3M) had been studied. It is found that the recoil release by Li(n,)H reaction, which comes from a chain reaction of beryllium neutron reflectors, is dominant. To prevent tritium recoil release, the surface area of beryllium neutron reflectors needs to be minimum in the core design and/or be shielded with other material. In this paper, as the feasibility study of the tritium recoil barrier for the beryllium neutron reflectors, various materials such as Al, Ti, V, Ni, and Zr were evaluated from the viewpoint of the thickness of barriers, activities after long-term operations, and effects on the reactivities. From the results of evaluations, Al would be a suitable candidate as the tritium recoil barrier for the beryllium neutron reflectors.

Thick target neutron yields from 100- and 230-MeV/nucleon helium ions bombarding water, PMMA, and iron

Tsai, P.-E.; Heilbronn, L. H.*; Lai, B.-L.*; Iwata, Yoshiyuki*; Murakami, Takeshi*; Sheu, R.-J.*

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B, 449, p.62 - 70, 2019/06

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2019.04.030

The secondary neutrons produced from 100- and 230-MeV/nucleon He ions, respectively, stopping in the thick iron, PMMA and water targets are measured by the time of flight method combined with the pulse shape discrimination of liquid scintillators. The experimental data show that the secondary neutrons were contributed from breakup of projectiles, emission from overlap regions of projectile nuclei and target nuclei, and evaporation of projectiles and target nuclei. The measured double-differential thick target neutron yields, angular distributions, and total neutron yields per ion, were benchmarked by the PHITS, FLUKA, and MCNP model calculations. The default models in these codes agree the experimental data well at intermediate-to-large angles in the low-to-intermediate energy range. However, the physics models implemented in PHITS need further improvement for some particular nuclear interaction mechanisms, and this work can be an importance reference for future model development.

Implementation of random sampling for ACE-format cross sections using FRENDY and application to uncertainty reduction

Kondo, Ryoichi*; Endo, Tomohiro*; Yamamoto, Akio*; Tada, Kenichi

Proceedings of International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2019) (CD-ROM), p.1493 - 1502, 2019/00

A perturbation capability of ACE formatted cross section files was developed using the modules of FRENDY. Uncertainty quantification using MCNP was carried out for the Godiva critical experiment by the RS method. We verified the results of the RS method by comparing with those obtained by the conventional sensitivity analyses. Moreover, uncertainty reduction using the bias factor method with the RS technique was applied to kinetic parameter, i.e., neutron generation time.

Sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of for MYRRHA using a Monte Carlo technique

Iwamoto, Hiroki; Stankovskiy, A.*; Fiorito, L.*; Van den Eynde, G.*

EPJ Nuclear Sciences & Technologies (Internet), 4, p.42_1 - 42_7, 2018/11

https://doi.org/10.1051/epjn/2018023

This paper presents a nuclear data sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of the effective delayed neutron fraction for critical and subcritical cores of the MYRRHA reactor using the continuous-energy Monte Carlo transport code MCNP. The sensitivities are calculated by the modified -ratio method proposed by Chiba. Comparing the sensitivities obtained with different scaling factors introduced by Chiba shows that a value of is the most suitable for the uncertainty quantification of . Using the calculated sensitivities and the JENDL-4.0u covariance data, the uncertainties for the critical and subcritical cores are determined to be 2.2 0.2% and 2.0 0.2%, respectively, which are dominated by delayed neutron yield of Pu and U.

Multi-threading performance of Geant4, MCNP6, and PHITS Monte Carlo codes for tetrahedral-mesh geometry

Han, M. C.*; Yeom, Y. S.*; Lee, H. S.*; Shin, B.*; Kim, C. H.*; Furuta, Takuya

Physics in Medicine & Biology, 63(9), p.09NT02_1 - 09NT02_9, 2018/05

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6560/aabd20

The multi-threading computation performances of the Geant4, MCNP6, and PHITS codes were evaluated using three tetrahedral-mesh phantoms with different complexity. Photon and neutron transport simulations were conducted and the initialization time, calculation time, and memory usage were measured as a function of the number of threads N used in the simulation. The initialization time significantly increases with the complexity of the phantom, but not much with the number of the threads. For the calculation time, Geant4 showed good parallelization efficiency with multi-thread computation (30 times speed-up factor for N = 40) adopting the private tallies while saturation of the speed-up factor were observed in MCNP6 and PHITS (10 and a few times for N = 40) due to the time delay for the sharing tallies. On the other hand, Geant4 requires larger memory specification and the memory usage rapidly increases with the number of threads compared to MCNP6 or PHITS. It is notable that when compared to the other codes, the memory usage of PHITS is much smaller, regardless of both the complexity of the phantom and the number of the threads.

Benchmark of neutron production cross sections with Monte Carlo codes

Tsai, P.-E.; Lai, B.-L.*; Heilbronn, L. H.*; Sheu, R.-J.*

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B, 416, p.16 - 29, 2018/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2017.11.029

Fifteen thin target experiments were selected for this benchmark study of the neutron production cross sections. The studied cases include a mix combination of C, Ne Ar, Kr, and Xe ions bombarding Li, C, Al, Cu, and Pb target with projectile energies between 135 and 600 MeV/nucleon. The experimental data were compared to the model calculations performed by (1) PHITS version 2.73 with JQMD and GEM model, (2) PHITS version 2.82 with revised JQMD 2.0 and GEM model, (3) FLUKA version 2011.2c with RQMD 2.4 and FLUKA's own de-excitation model, and (4) MCNP6 version 1.0 with LAQGSM 03.03 and GEM2 model. This study provides useful information not only for code users but also for model developers, and it will lead to future improvements of the PHITS - JQMD model for heavy-ion induced reactions, which is important for accelerator facilities, heavy-ion radiotherapy, and space radiation.