Verification of nuclear data libraries used to design molten salt blankets of a fusion neutron source

This study presents the results of testing nuclear data libraries by analyzing statistical criteria obtained from comparing experimental and calculated rates for (n,2n), (n,p), (n,pn), (n,nꞌγ) (n,α) and (n,γ) reactions measured on samples ^natNi, ^natZr, ^natNb, ^natCd, ^natTi, ^natCo,^{63(96%), 65(99.70%)}Cu, ^64(99.70%)Zn, ^natIn, ^natAl, ^natMg, ^natFe, ^natAu and ^natTh, which were placed in the experimental channels of micromodels of the fusion blanket.

The “fast” (the cylinder Ø 230 mm and 520 mm length was filled with ∼ 67 kg of molten salt 0.52NaF + 0.48ZrF4) and the “thermal” blanket (the same cylinder was placed in a dry channel inside a cubic container filled with water with dimensions of 52.0 × 52.0 × 52.0 cm were investigated. The reaction rates were measured using the activation method.

Modeling with transport codes MCNP5, KIR, PHITS-3.31, SuperMC3.4.0 was performed using the ENDF/B-VII.0 library for neutron transport as well as seven neutron data libraries for reaction rates simulation, including: JEFF-3.3, JENDL-4.0, ENDF/B–VIII.0, ROSFOND-2010, FENDL-3.0, TENDL − 2019 and IRDFF-II.