Benchmarking of Proton Transport in Super Monte Carlo Simulation Program

Abstract

The Monte Carlo (MC) method has been traditionally applied in nuclear design and analysis due to its capability of dealing with complicated geometries and multi-dimensional physics problems as well as obtaining accurate results. The Super Monte Carlo Simulation Program (SuperMC) is developed by FDS Team in China for fusion, fission, and other nuclear applications. The simulations of radiation transport, isotope burn-up, material activation, radiation dose, and biology damage could be performed using SuperMC. Complicated geometries and the whole physical process of various types of particles in broad energy scale can be well handled. Bi-directional automatic conversion between general CAD models and full-formed input files of SuperMC is supported by MCAM, which is a CAD/image-based automatic modeling program for neutronics and radiation transport simulation. Mixed visualization of dynamical 3D dataset and geometry model is supported by RVIS, which is a nuclear radiation virtual simulation and assessment system. Continuous-energy cross section data from hybrid evaluated nuclear data library HENDL are utilized to support simulation. Neutronic fixed source and critical design parameters calculates for reactors of complex geometry and material distribution based on the transport of neutron and photon have been achieved in our former version of SuperMC. Recently, the proton transport has also been intergrated in SuperMC in the energy region up to 10 GeV. The physical processes considered for proton transport include electromagnetic processes and hadronic processes. The electromagnetic processes include ionization, multiple scattering, bremsstrahlung, and pair production processes. Public evaluated data from HENDL are used in some electromagnetic processes. In hadronic physics, the Bertini intra-nuclear cascade model with exitons, preequilibrium model, nucleus explosion model, fission model, and evaporation model are incorporated to treat the intermediate energy nuclear reactions for proton. Some other hadronic models are also being developed now. The benchmarking of proton transport in SuperMC has been performed according to Accelerator Driven subcritical System (ADS) benchmark data and model released by IAEA from IAEA’s Cooperation Research Plan (CRP). The incident proton energy is 1.0 GeV. The neutron flux and energy deposition were calculated. The results simulated using SupeMC and FLUKA are in agreement within the statistical uncertainty inherent in the Monte Carlo method. The proton transport in SuperMC has also been applied in China Lead-Alloy cooled Reactor (CLEAR), which is designed by FDS Team for the calculation of spallation reaction in the target.