Electron Transport in Reactor Materials

The transport method used in the analysis of pulsed electron beam experiments to determine the equations of state of Liquid-Metal-Fast-Breeder-Reactor materials has been verified experimentally. A calorimetric technique has been employed in conjunction with a steady-state monoenergetic (¿ 1.0 MeV) accelerator to measure electron albedos and high-resolution energy deposition profiles in reactor materials. Energy deposition profiles have been obtained in a multilayer carbon-uranium-carbon configuration and in semi-infinite uranium. Systematic measurements of the saturated number and energy albedos for UO2 have been obtained as a function of source energy and incident angle. All experimental results have been compared with predictions of the Monte Carlo code employed in the analysis of the pulsed-beam experiments. The good agreement substantially enhances our confidence in the resulting equation-of-state data, as well as in the more general predictive capability of the transport technique.