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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 217 records · Page 12

LABS: Los Alamos Benchmark Suite - Current status and planning [Slides]

The LABS repository now has over 500 verified and revised input files with about 600 input files left to get up to speed with what we currently use. After that there are many, many more to go. We're in the process of building code infrastructure, moving to template output files, automating input file generation, outputting file data mining for calculation results, and benchmarking selection on sensitivity and other benchmark characteristics. We intend to open source LABS. We'll most likely release the input files sooner rather than later. The associated tool will probably be open sourced later.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Operational and Mission Highlights: A Monthly Summary of Top Achievements September 2021

Laboratory personnel working on a years-long Confinement Vessel Disposition (CVD) Project at the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research (CMR) facility recently shipped its first vessel after closing the emptying and dispositioning portion of the project in 2020. During the 1970s and 1980s, the Laboratory conducted experiments that produced data used in computer modeling. Scientists used these models to evaluate the performance of nuclear weapons.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Recent MCNP6 ® Code Developments and Improvements for Nuclear Engineering Applications [Slides]

The Los Alamos MCNP Monte Carlo radiation transport code has been the international gold standard for particle transport applications for over three decades. Many developments to the code have taken place with several significant new feature additions, major improvements, and enhancements to existing features. With significant institutional and programmatic investment in the code since the time of the last public release in 2018, important code development and infrastructure modernization has taken place and remains a high priority for all ongoing efforts across the code development team.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Whisper Use of Nuclear Data Covariances [Slides]

Whisper is statistical analysis code using sensitivity/uncertainty-based methods to determine baseline upper subcritical limit (USL) for nuclear criticality safety. Features of Whisper 1.1 include: GLLS method implemented to compute adjusted covariance based on current benchmark suite (1,100+ ICSBEP models), BLO “low-fidelity” covariance data used (44 energy groups), adjusted covariance is pre-computed and saved, and adjusted cross sections are NOT computed. Potential future efforts include: an extension to include angular distributions in benchmark selection and in GLLS adjustment, a move toward more modern covariance data (ENDF/B-VIII.0) and different group structure, and compute and store adjusted cross sections (trivial).

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Integration Roadmap for Multi-Scale, Multi-Physics Mass Accountancy in Molten Salt Reactors

The objective of the integration roadmap is to describe the necessary physics required and a plan for modeling and simulation approach for predicting mass accountancy in molten salt reactors on an engineering scale. The thermophysical properties and the underlying thermodynamics are fundamental inputs. Therefore, the modeling will span length scales from first principles calculations to the engineering scale. The intention is to predict where material accumulates in a reactor core and loop and to understand perturbations on the systems level, for example the downstream effects from a turbine failure

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

FY21 MCNP ® Updates for the Nuclear Criticality Safety Program [Slides]

LANL has devoted a substantial amount effort toward the MCNP6.3 release over the past year by improving many of their processes, infrastructure, and capabilities. Many new resources in support of the MCNP code and DOE NCSP applications are coming online now. LANL is excited to receive feedback on all of the new and improved capabilities that will be packaged with MCNP6.3.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Thermal Neutron Scattering Improvements and Fixes for MCNP6.3 [Slides]

Major error (10,000+ pcm) discovered when using uranium-dioxide or uranium-nitride included in ENDF80SaB2 release. Improvements are being made towards preparing the code for ENDF/B-VIII.1 (ACE) format updates. A minor error (0-10’s pcm) was discovered while working on new capability development for Lab Directed Research & Development (LDRD) project. Previously, only a single coherent or incoherent elastic channel (along with an inelastic channel) was allowed in a thermal neutron scattering evaluation and subsequent processed ACE file. Based on what is planned in ENDF/B-VIII.1 release, there will be (a) new thermal scattering evaluation(s) which uses this mixed-mode coherent and incoherent elastic scattering blocks. MCNP6.3 has been modified to be able to handle such data in the future. Some reorganization has been made in the cross section calculation (acetot, sabcol, colidn) in the presence of TSL data.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Ellipsoidal Fitting Methodology for Defect Clusters in Gallium Arsenide

In assessing the initial spatial distribution of defects from neutron or heavy ion irradiation, it is useful to have a reliable, automated, and fast-running tool to evaluate characteristic metrics such as the number of sub-clusters or the overall cluster volume. The latter metric, for instance, can be utilized to estimate a reference neutron fluence level at which inter-cluster interaction effects begin to become significant. This paper details a methodology to fit an arbitrarily complex defect map with a set of ellipsoids (one per identified sub-cluster) in which the constituent defects of a sub-cluster are determined using fuzzy degree-of-membership analysis. Specifically, a parameterized model is developed for point defects in gallium arsenide. Cluster volume calculations based on the model are compared against convex hull and single- ellipsoid representations. Results show that the parameterized sub-cluster model begins to deviate from the two reference models at a recoil energy of about 100 keV in GaAs, with the convex hull and single-ellipsoid representations increasingly overestimating the volume thereafter.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Modeling Induction Stirring and Particle Tracking in Molten Uranium

Two independent numerical models have been developed to simulate the behavior of carbon impurities in molten uranium metal. Informed by experimental parameters, one model was created using the commercial software Star-CCM+ and compared with another developed using open-source codes, including OpenFOAM, Finite Element Method Magnetics (FEMM) and a First Passage Kinetic Monte Carlo (FPKMC) approach. The target experimental system features a 404g uranium metal charge containing an average carbon concentration of 139 ppm which was melted in a vacuum induction furnace at 1400° C then resolidified. The microstructures of the uranium and its impurities before and after melting have been characterized and reported separately. Prior to simulating the uranium-carbon system described, the numerical models were validated using a previously published nonradioactive experimental system to ensure agreement with expected output values. Focus has been placed on modeling velocity fields under induction stirring and impurity particle trajectories.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Comparison of the Baseline USL Calculation Methods for Loosely-Coupled and Novel Neutronic Systems [Slides]

Current work includes reconstructing 187-group ENDF B/VII.1 covariance matrix for comparison study to 44-group ENDF B/VII.1 matrix to determine how covariance matrix structures affect the USL calculations and investigating the exact domination mechanism of region-wise sensitivities in a loosely-coupled system. Future work will involve seeking to understand how bias distributions change with reactivity and how to calculate propagate distribution error into USL calculations, as well as how cross section perturbation studies can be extended to other types of calculations, such as shielding calculations.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Thermal Neutron Scattering Law (TNSL) Implementation and Testing in FUDGE

Thermal neutron scattering law processing capabilities have been recently implemented in the LLNL code FUDGE (For Updating Data and Generating Evaluations). FUDGE is now capable of producing processed TNSL data for use in Monte Carlo or deterministic transport. To test this new capability, LLNL scientists performed an extensive intercomparison between the Mercury, Ardra, COG and MCNP transport codes. This intercomparison helped probe differences between how TNSL data are handled by the transport codes and by two different processing codes (LLNL’s FUDGE and LANL’s NJOY). This report summarizes recent improvements in FUDGE TNSL capabilities as well as results from the code intercomparison.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

TNSL improvements in FUDGE [Slides]

FUDGE TNSL processing capabilities are improving. New development focuses on reading and writing GNDS, but FUDGE also supports writing to ACE and ENDL. Work provides a chance to compare in-depth with other codes. TNSL processing is mostly complete, but MCGIDI sampling has room for improvement. There are plans to revisit interpolation and to improve strategies for sampling coherent/incoherent elastic.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Bayesian Monte-Carlo Evaluation Framework for Imperfect Data [Slides]

BMC evaluation is a tool to address imperfect data & models, non-linear models, and non-normal PDFs. New posterior PDFs may need new storage formats to allow storage of non-normal PDFs. Storing posterior sets allows for: variance, covariance, skewness, etc.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Nuclear Data Activities Supporting MCNP [Slides]

Nuclear Data Team at LANL is working to improve nuclear data availability. These efforts include an updated, modernized, and improved website and a new, dynamic tool for examining what ACE data is on your machine.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗