MCNP™ Version 5

Abstract

The Monte Carlo transport workhorse, MCNP [Los Alamos National Laboratory report LA-13709-M, 2000], is undergoing a massive renovation at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in support of the Eolus Project of the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASCI) Program. MCNP 1 MCNP is a trademark of the Regents of the University of California, Los Alamos National Laboratory. 1 Version 5 (V5) (expected to be released to RSICC in Fall 2002) will consist of a major restructuring from FORTRAN-77 (with extensions) to ANSI-standard FORTRAN-90 [American National Standard for Programming Language – Fortran-Extended, ANSI X3. 198-1992, 1992] with support for all of the features available in the present release (MCNP-4C2/4C3). To most users, the look-and-feel of MCNP will not change much except for the improvements (improved graphics, easier installation, better online documentation). For example, even with the major format change, full support for incremental patching will still be provided. In addition to the language and style updates, MCNP V5 will have various new user features. These include improved photon physics, neutral particle radiography, enhancements and additions to variance reduction methods, new source options, improved parallelism support (PVM, MPI, OpenMP), and new nuclear and atomic data libraries.