Experimental analyses of βeff/Λ in accelerator-driven system at Kyoto University Critical Assembly

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe capability of βeff /Λ obtained by λ-mode and ω-mode calculations is examined for target subcriticality in the accelerator-driven system through a comparison with that obtained in the pulsed-neutron source (PNS) experiments at the Kyoto University Critical Assembly. Directly measured results of βeff /Λ, α and ρ$ in the PNS experiments are validated by varying the experimental conditions: the external neutron source, detector position, detector type and subcriticality ranging between 500 and 7500 pcm. The numerical analyses of βeff /Λ are conducted by using MCNP6.1 together with ENDF/B-VII.1 for λ-mode calculations and PARTISN (SCALE6.2.2 with ENDF-VII.1 for the effective cross sections) for both the λ-mode and the ω-mode calculations. The comparison between calculated and measured βeff /Λ with varying subcriticality shows good agreement between the experiments and the ω-mode calculations, although a difference is observed between the experiments and the λ-mode calculations.