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At least 55 records · Page 3

Final Design of a New Pulsed-Neutron Die-Away Experimental Testbed for Thermal Scattering Law Benchmarks (PNDA) (IER-501 CED-2)

This report presents the final design (CED-2) of IER-501, a testbed for pulsed-neutron die-away (PNDA) experiments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The PNDA experiments will be high-quality benchmarks that serve to optimize and validate thermal neutron scattering laws (TSLs), which are high-priority nuclear data for the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP). This CED-2 was guided by experimental results gathered from a prototype experimental set-up rather than with detailed simulations as is typically done for criticality experiments. The report presents the PNDA design and its equipment, and it documents the methodology used to postprocess the measured data. It discusses how experimental configurations influenced the decay-constant eigenvalue, or the integral parameter, of the experiment. The studied variations included the distance from the target to the generator, the orientation of the generator relative to the box, the orientation of the target to the generator, the effect of HDPE lining in the shielding box, the settings of the generator, and finally the benefits of using a low-scatter facility. From these results, a final configuration for the target, detectors, shielding box, and neutron generator was chosen. Two factors particularly influenced the chosen configuration: the reproducibility of the experiment’s geometry for benchmark modeling, and the minimization of measured neutrons scattered off the shielding box.

42 ENGINEERING↗

IER-501 CED-3b: Experiment Execution Summary for the Pulsed-Neutron Die-Away Experimental Testbed for Thermal Scattering Law Benchmarks (PNDA)

This report summarizes the experiments performed for IER-501, a testbed for pulsed-neutron die-away (PNDA) experiments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The PNDA experiments were conducted in two separate two-day campaigns: one campaign for high-density polyethylene and another for Lucite. All experiments were performed at LLNL. They will become high-quality benchmarks that serve to optimize and validate thermal neutron scattering laws (TSLs), which are high-priority nuclear data for the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP). The report presents the PNDA design and its equipment, and it documents the experimental die-away curves. It presents the characterization measurements that have been performed to-date. Importantly, mass spectrometry measurements to determine sample impurities were not yet completed. These will be included in the final benchmark. The report gives the fitted decay constants for the die-away curves of each target sample. It also provides the data for the die-away curves in the appendices. The HDPE experiments examined twelve targets of varying size. The Lucite measurements included ten targets of varying size.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

IER-501 CED-3b: Experiment Execution Summary for the Pulsed-Neutron Die-Away Experimental Testbed for Thermal Scattering Law Benchmarks (PNDA)

This report summarizes the experiments done for IER-501, a testbed for pulsed-neutron die-away (PNDA) experiments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The PNDA experiments were conducted in two separate two-day campaigns: one campaign for high-density polyethylene and another for Lucite. All experiments were performed at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. They will become high-quality benchmarks that serve to optimize and validate thermal neutron scattering laws (TSLs), which are high priority nuclear data for the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP). The report presents the PNDA design and its equipment, and it documents the experimental die-away curves. It presents the characterization measurements that have been performed to-date. Importantly, mass spectrometry measurements to determine sample impurities were not yet completed. These will be included in the final benchmark. The report gives the fitted decay constants for the die-away curves of each target sample. It also provides the data for the die-away curves in the appendices. The HDPE experiments examined twelve targets of varying size. The Lucite measurements included ten targets of varying size. Experimenters in the campaign were Daniel Siefman, William Zywiec, and Ruby Araj.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Fast On-The-Fly Monte Carlo Sampling of Temperature Dependent Thermal Scattering [Slides]

This presentation highlights the process of developing a thermal data library for MCNP6 to support on-the-fly S(alpha, beta) sampling for temperature ranges applicable to nuclear criticality safety. Advanced on-the-fly (OTF) strategy driven libraries have been developed for six materials based on ENDF/B-VIII.0. Validation of the OTF libraries is being conducted currently.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

IER 480: TEX-Pu Benchmark (PU-MET-THERM-004) to Test Polyethylene and Lucite Thermal Scattering Laws [Slides]

This presentation finds that PMT-004 has four new benchmark cases highly sensitive to PE TSL (2 cases) and PMMA TSL (2 Cases). PE cases were well predicted using MCNP6.2 and ENDF/B-VIII.0. PMMA cases overpredicted by approximately 0.6-0.7% in k eff at 20°C. Accepted into 2023 version of the ICSBEP Handbook. Temperature had a large impact on reactivity of the critical configuration. Implications for validation work for thermal cases- need to adjust TSL data to correct temperature as it can have hundreds of pcm effects for a few °C. Future thermal experiments should try and measure reactivity at multiple temperatures to aid in data testing and benchmark adjustment.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

PMT-004 Validation Testing for Thermal Scattering Laws and Some Interesting Temperature-Dependent Implications [Slides]

This presentation finds that PMT-004 has four new benchmark cases highly sensitive to PE TSL (2 cases) and PMMA TSL (2 Cases). Additionally discovered was that the PE cases were well predicted using MCNP6.2 and ENDF/B-VIII.0. PMMA cases overpredicted by approximately 0.6-0.7% in k eff likely due to the lack of integral benchmarks sensitive to PMMA. The NCSU ENDF/B-VIII.1 PMMA TSL is an improvement over VIII.0. This was Accepted at last ICSBEP meeting pending comment resolution, should be published in 2024 version of the Handbook. It was found that temperature had a large impact on reactivity of the critical configuration. This has Implications for validation work for thermal cases- need to adjust TSL data to correct temperature as it can have hundreds of pcm effects for a few °C. Future thermal experiments should try and measure reactivity at multiple temperatures to add in data testing and benchmark adjustment.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

The importance of phonon spectrum measurements for accurate prediction of thermal scattering laws [Slides]

Although approximate phonon spectra (e.g. Debye model) are sufficient to reproduce integral quantities (e.g. total INS cross section) in reasonable agreement with the measured data, more accurate phonon spectra are needed to achieve agreement with the differential data. SANS component is essential for reproducing the total scattering cross section; this is the case for nanodiamonds and other materials where SANS components are present (such as porous materials like nuclear graphite). A format proposal for SANS data in ENDF or GNDS is needed. Therefore, differential (e.g. phonon spectrum) and integral (e.g. total cross section) measurements are necessary in the process of creating an ENDF evaluation. We have successfully developed a method by which ENDF evaluations can be directly compared to the relevant experimentally measured quantities. INS experiments at SNS, ILL, ISIS, and, in the future, ESS, as well as total cross section measurements at the VESUVIO instrument at ISIS, are accessible through user programs.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Impact of Thermal Scattering Law on Similarity Assessment in Light-Water or Polyethylene-Moderated Systems [Slides]

This presentation found validation efforts revealed noticeable differences in c k for light-water and polyethylene moderated systems when compared to PST-002-001. Additionally, although 1 H-H 2 O and 1 H-poly use the same cross section and covariance data, the treatment of TSLs in SCALE lead to no contribution to ck between polyethylene application and benchmark experiment. When H 2 O contribution were removed the difference in c k appears to come from 239 Pu chi. Sensitivity profiles and data-induced uncertainty confirmed that the polyethylene application was more closely resembling the benchmark experiment. Specific differences between similar systems can be accounted for and examined to help understand differences in similarity (c k ) between systems was a conclusion reached by this presentation.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

A fast, exact code for scattered thermal radiation compared with a two-stream approximation

A two-stream accuracy study for internally (thermal) driven problems is presented by comparison with a recently developed 'exact' adding/doubling method. The resulting errors in external (or boundary) radiative intensity and flux are usually larger than those for the externally driven problems and vary substantially with the radiative parameters. Error predictions for a specific problem are difficult. An unexpected result is that the exact method is computationally as fast as the two-stream approximation for nonisothermal media.

Cogley, A. C.↗