Plutonium sphere multiplicity simulations with MCNP-PoliMi

Author

Miller, Eric C. ; Dennis, Ben D. ; Clarke, Shaun D. ; Pozzi, Sara A. ; Mattingly, John

Author_Institution

Dept. of Nucl. Eng. & Radiol. Sci., Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

fYear

2009

fDate

Oct. 24 2009-Nov. 1 2009

Firstpage

1387

Lastpage

1392

Abstract

In order to improve the characterization methods for fissile materials, effort must be made to validate the computer codes that are used to simulate the behavior of these systems. For this work, measurements of a 4.4-kg sphere of weapons grade plutonium metal were taken. A detector array of ³He tubes embedded in polyethylene was used to measure the multiplicity of the system. The experiment was then modeled using the MCNP-PoliMi code and the simulated results were compared to the measured results using the Feynman-Y metric. MCNP-PoliMi is able to correctly predict the measured value of the Feynman-Y vale within 5% for all of the moderated cases and within 22% for the bare sphere.

Keywords

Monte Carlo methods; fission of plutonium; ionisation chambers; simulation; ³He tubes; Feynman-Y metric; MCNP-PoliMi; computer codes; detector array; fissile materials; plutonium sphere multiplicity simulations; weapons grade plutonium metal; Computational modeling; Computer simulation; Detectors; Event detection; Laboratories; Neutrons; Nuclear and plasma sciences; Polyethylene; Sensor arrays; Weapons;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record (NSS/MIC), 2009 IEEE

Conference_Location

Orlando, FL

ISSN

1095-7863

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-3961-4

Electronic_ISBN

1095-7863

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/NSSMIC.2009.5402325

Filename

5402325