Design of epicadmium-shielded irradiation channel of the outer irradiation channel of the Ghana Research Reactor-1 using MCNP

Abstract

The MCNP model for the Ghana Research Reactor-1 was redesigned to incorporate an epicadmium-shielded irradiation channel in one of the outer irradiation channels. Extensive investigations were made before arriving at the final design of only one epicadmium covered outer irradiation channel; as all the other designs that were considered did not give desirable results of neutronic performance. The concept of redesigning a new MCNP model which has an epicadmium-shielded channel is to equip the Ghana Research Reactor-1 with the means of performing efficient epithermal neutron activation analysis. After the simulation, a comparison of the results from the original MCNP model for the Ghana Research Reactor-1 and the new redesigned model of the epicadmium-shielded channel was made. The final k eff of the original MCNP model for the GHARR-1 was recorded as 1.00402 while that of the new epicadmium designed model was recorded as 1.00332. Also, a final prompt neutron lifetime of 1.5237 × 10 −4 s was recorded for the new epicadmium designed model while a value of 1.5571 × 10 −7 s was recorded for the original MCNP design of the GHARR-1. The neutron energy causing fission for the original MCNP design of the GHARR-1 was 1.3533 × 10 −2 MeV while that of the new epicadmium designed model was 1.3513 × 10 −2 MeV.