Neutron cross section sensitivity for minor actinide transmutation in energy amplifier systems

The nuclear data sensitivity in 3D Monte Carlo burnup calculations of minor actinide transmutation in Energy Amplifier Systems is assessed. Ansaldo Nucleare’s 80 MWth Energy Amplifier Demonstration Facility (EADF) design serves as a technical and geometrical platform for the analysis. The accelerator-driven EADF is a fast, subcritical system based on classical MOX-fuel technology and on molten lead–bismuth eutectic cooling. For Monte Carlo simulations, the state-of-the-art computer code package EA-MC, developed by C. Rubbia and his group at CERN, is utilised. The code offers treatment of both high-energy particle interactions and low-energy neutron transport with a sophisticated method based on a full Monte Carlo simulation, together with the option of employing different modern nuclear data libraries. In particular, the impact of nuclear data discrepancies on transmutation properties prediction with increasing exposure is examined. Monte Carlo simulation accelerator-driven systems transmutation burnup fast neutron spectrum minor actinides nuclear waste.