Highlighting cross section library effects on absorption rates and flux for natural elements in a thermal spectrum using TRIPOLI-5

Abstract

This work presents an investigation of cross section library effects with the new TRIPOLI-5 Monte Carlo code, a joint project between CEA, IRSN and EDF in France. Cross section library effects on the absorption rate and the flux spectrum were highlighted for natural elements subjected to a thermal neutron flux. The numerical benchmark that is presented here is a sphere with a radius of 30 cm filled with 10−2 atoms·(barn·cm)−1 of a single element according to its natural isotopic abundances. For the thermal flux case, a smaller sphere with a radius of 1 cm is placed at the center of the main sphere to obtain a thermal-like flux from a pointwise Maxwellian source using a mixture of hydrogen and boron-10. A total of 12 cross sections libraries have been compared.