Experimental measurement of nuclear heating in a graphite-cantered assembly in deuterium–tritium neutron environment for the validation of data and calculation

Within the framework of the ITER Task T-218 entitled ‘Shielding Blanket Neutronics Experiments’, nuclear heating measurements were conducted jointly by the USA and Japan using a micro calorimetric technique in a graphite-cantered assembly. An accelerator-based D-T neutron source at JAERI was used to provide a mixed neutron and photon field. The first measurements related to direct micro calorimetric measurements in individual graphite probes along the axis. In the second set, the first graphite probe was replaced, one by one, by single probes of beryllium, aluminum, silicon, silicon carbide, titanium, vanadium, chromium, iron, stainless steel 316, nickel, copper, zirconium, niobium, molybdenum, tungsten. Analysis of the measurements has been carried out using Monte Carlo code MCNP with FENDL-1, ENDF/B-VI and MCPLIB nuclear data libraries. A comparison of calculations (C) and experiments (E) shows a C/E ratio lying in a C/E band extending from 0.9 to 1.2 for beryllium, graphite, copper, chromium, iron, nickel, 316 stainless steel, titanium, vanadium, molybdenum, niobium and tungsten. However, larger deviations from unity are seen for C/E values for silicon, zirconium, and aluminum. Though FENDL-1 and ENDF/B-VI libraries provide very close nuclear heating rates for most of the probe materials, significant divergences are seen for silicon, silicon carbide, aluminum, titanium, zirconium, niobium, and molybdenum. The divergences are traceable to differences in neutron kerma factors as well as gamma production cross-sections of these materials.