{"title":"Investigation of the impact of thermal neutron scattering cross sections and angular distributions on criticality calculations","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.anucene.2024.110851","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The present study focuses on the influence of neutron scattering cross section and angular distribution when employing the Thermal Scattering Law (TSL) on criticality calculation benchmarks, in comparison with the Free Gas Model (FGM). The benchmarks sensitive to beryllium oxide (HMT-027) and graphite (HMT-026) as well as some simplified Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) benchmarks are interpreted using the OpenMC code to assess the influence of TSL. The results indicate that the influence of TSL mainly attributes to both the total scattering cross section and the secondary angular distribution characterized by the average cosine of the scattering angle. The HMT-027 and HMT-026 series benchmarks respectively show the more significant influence of one of these two effects. For the simplified PWR benchmark, employing the TSL of H in H<sub>2</sub>O weakens the neutron moderation effect, which results in a reduction of around 100 pcm in the calculated <span><math><msub><mrow><mi>k</mi></mrow><mrow><mtext>eff</mtext></mrow></msub></math></span>, while the combined influence of cross section and secondary angular distribution is negligible for the TSL of UO<sub>2</sub> fuel.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":8006,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Nuclear Energy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Annals of Nuclear Energy","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306454924005140","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"NUCLEAR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The present study focuses on the influence of neutron scattering cross section and angular distribution when employing the Thermal Scattering Law (TSL) on criticality calculation benchmarks, in comparison with the Free Gas Model (FGM). The benchmarks sensitive to beryllium oxide (HMT-027) and graphite (HMT-026) as well as some simplified Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) benchmarks are interpreted using the OpenMC code to assess the influence of TSL. The results indicate that the influence of TSL mainly attributes to both the total scattering cross section and the secondary angular distribution characterized by the average cosine of the scattering angle. The HMT-027 and HMT-026 series benchmarks respectively show the more significant influence of one of these two effects. For the simplified PWR benchmark, employing the TSL of H in H2O weakens the neutron moderation effect, which results in a reduction of around 100 pcm in the calculated , while the combined influence of cross section and secondary angular distribution is negligible for the TSL of UO2 fuel.
期刊介绍:
Annals of Nuclear Energy provides an international medium for the communication of original research, ideas and developments in all areas of the field of nuclear energy science and technology. Its scope embraces nuclear fuel reserves, fuel cycles and cost, materials, processing, system and component technology (fission only), design and optimization, direct conversion of nuclear energy sources, environmental control, reactor physics, heat transfer and fluid dynamics, structural analysis, fuel management, future developments, nuclear fuel and safety, nuclear aerosol, neutron physics, computer technology (both software and hardware), risk assessment, radioactive waste disposal and reactor thermal hydraulics. Papers submitted to Annals need to demonstrate a clear link to nuclear power generation/nuclear engineering. Papers which deal with pure nuclear physics, pure health physics, imaging, or attenuation and shielding properties of concretes and various geological materials are not within the scope of the journal. Also, papers that deal with policy or economics are not within the scope of the journal.