Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Neutron transport is the study of the motions and interactions of neutrons with materials. Nuclear scientists
and engineers often need to know where neutrons are in an apparatus, what direction they are going, and how
quickly they are moving. It is commonly used to determine the behavior of nuclear reactor cores and
experimental or industrial neutron beams. Neutron transport is a type of radiative transport.
Contents
1 Background
2 Neutron Transport Equation
3 Types of neutron transport calculations
3.1 Fixed Source
3.2 Criticality
4 Computational Methods
4.1 Discretization in Deterministic Methods
4.2 Computer Codes Used In Neutron Transport
4.2.1 Probabilistic codes
4.2.2 Deterministic codes
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
Background
Neutron transport has roots in the Boltzmann equation, which was used in the 1800s to study the kinetic theory
of gases. It did not receive large-scale development until the invention of chain-reacting nuclear reactors in the
1940s. As neutron distributions came under detailed scrutiny, elegant approximations and analytic solutions
were found in simple geometries. However, as computational power has increased, numerical approaches to
neutron transport have become prevalent. Today, with massively parallel computers, neutron transport is still
under very active development in academia and research institutions throughout the world. It remains one of the
most computationally challenging problems in the world since it depends on 3-dimensions of space, time, and
the variables of energy span several decades (from fractions of meV to several MeV). Modern solutions use
either discrete-ordinates or monte-carlo methods, or even a hybrid of both.
Where:
Symbol
Meaning
Comments
at time
Note integrating
over all angles
yields scalar
neutron flux
The transport equation can be applied to a given part of phase space (time t, energy E, location , and direction
of travel ). The first term represents the time rate of change of neutrons in the system. The second terms
describes the movement of neutrons into or out of the volume of space of interest. The third term accounts for all
neutrons that have a collision in that phase space. The first term on the right hand side is the production of
neutrons in this phase space due to fission, while the second term on the right hand side is the production of
neutrons in this phase space due to delayed neutron precursors (i.e., unstable nuclei which undergo neutron
decay). The third term on the right hand side is in-scattering, these are neutrons that enter this area of phase
space as a result of scattering interactions in another. The fourth term on the right is a generic source. The
equation is usually solved to find
, since that will allow for the calculation of reaction rates, which are of
primary interest in shielding and dosimetry studies.
Fixed Source
A fixed source calculation involves imposing a known neutron source on a medium and determining the resulting
neutron distribution throughout the problem. This type of problem is particularly useful for shielding calculations,
where a designer would like to minimize the neutron dose outside of a shield while using the least amount of
shielding material. For instance, a spent nuclear fuel cask requires shielding calculations to determine how much
concrete and steel is needed to safely protect the truck driver who is shipping it.
Criticality
Fission is the process through which a nucleus splits into (typically two) smaller atoms. If fission is occurring, it is
often of interest to know the asymptotic behavior of the system. A reactor is called critical if the chain reaction
is self-sustaining and time-independent. If the system is not in equilibrium the asymptotic neutron distribution, or
the fundamental mode, will grow or decay exponentially over time.
Criticality calculations are used to analyze steady-state multiplying media (multiplying media can undergo fission),
such as a critical nuclear reactor. The loss terms (absorption, out-scattering, and leakage) and the source terms
(in-scatter and fission) are proportional to the neutron flux, contrasting with fixed-source problems where the
source is independent of the flux. In these calculations, the presumption of time invariance requires that neutron
production exactly equals neutron loss.
Since this criticality can only be achieved by very fine manipulations of the geometry (typically via control rods in
a reactor), it is unlikely that the modeled geometry will be truly critical. To allow some flexibility in the way
models are set up, these problems are formulated as eigenvalue problems, where one parameter is artificially
modified until criticality is reached. The most common formulations are the time-absorption and the multiplication
eigenvalues, also known as the alpha and k eigenvalues. The alpha and k are the tunable quanitites.
K-eigenvalue problems are the most common in nuclear reactor analysis. The number of neutrons produced per
fission is multiplicatively modified by the dominant eigenvalue. The resulting value of this eigenvalue reflects the
time dependence of the neutron density in a multiplying medium.
k eff < 1, subcritical: the neutron density is decreasing as time passes;
k eff = 1, critical: the neutron density remains unchanged; and
k eff > 1, supercritical: the neutron density is increasing with time.
In the case of a nuclear reactor, neutron flux and power density are proportional, hence during reactor start-up
k eff > 1, during reactor operation k eff = 1 and k eff < 1 at reactor shutdown.
Computational Methods
Both fixed-source and criticality calculations can be solved using deterministic methods or stochastic methods.
In deterministic methods the transport equation (or an approximation of it, such as diffusion theory) is solved as
a differential equation. In stochastic methods such as Monte Carlo discrete particle histories are tracked and
averaged in a random walk directed by measured interaction probabilities. Deterministic methods usually involve
multi-group approaches while Monte Carlo can work with multi-group and continuous energy cross-section
libraries. Multi-group calculations are usually iterative, because the group constants are calculated using fluxenergy profiles, which are determined as the result of the neutron transport calculation.
See also
Nuclear Reactor
Boltzmann equation
TINTE
Neutron scattering
References
1. ^ Adams, Marvin L. (2009). Introduction to Nuclear Reactor Theory. Texas A&M University.
2. ^ "ENDF Libraries" (https://www-nds.iaea.org/exfor/endf.htm).
3. ^ "OpenMC" (http://mit-crpg.github.io/openmc/).
4. ^ "PSG2 Serpent" (http://montecarlo.vtt.fi/).
Lewis, E., & Miller, W. (1993). Computational Methods of Neutron Transport. American Nuclear
Society. ISBN 0-89448-452-4.
Duderstadt, J., & Hamilton, L. (1976). Nuclear Reactor Analysis. New York: Wiley. ISBN 0-47122363-8.
Marchuk, G. I., & V. I. Lebedev (1986). Numerical Methods in the Theory of Neutron Transport.
Taylor & Francis. p. 123. ISBN 978-3-7186-0182-0.
External links
LANL MCNP6 website (http://mcnp.lanl.gov/)
LANL MCNPX website (http://mcnpx.lanl.gov/)