Diagnostic and Impact Estimation of Nuclear Data Inconsistencies on Energy Deposition Calculations in Coupled Neutron-Photon Monte-Carlo Simulation, with TRIPOLI-4®

Abstract

Nuclear heating evaluation by Monte-Carlo simulation requires coupled neutron-photon calculation so as to take into account the contribution of secondary photons. Nuclear data are essential for a good calculation of neutron and photon energy deposition and for secondary photon generation. However, a number of isotopes of the most common nuclear data libraries happen to be affected by energy and/or momentum conservation errors concerning the photon production or inaccurate thresholds for photon emission sections. In this paper, we perform a comprehensive survey of the three evaluations JEFF3.1.1, JEFF3.2T2 (beta version) and ENDF/B-VII.1, over 142 isotopes. The aim of this survey is, on the one hand, to check the existence of photon production data by neutron reaction and, on the other hand, to verify the consistency of these data using the kinematic limits method recently implemented in the TRIPOLI-4 Monte-Carlo code, developed by CEA (Saclay center). Then, the impact of these inconsistencies affecting energy deposition scores has been estimated for two materials using a specific nuclear heating calculation scheme in the context of the OSIRIS Material Testing Reactor (CEA/Saclay).