Date of Award
3-23-2017
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Department of Engineering Physics
First Advisor
James Fee Jr., PhD.
Abstract
The goal of this research was to develop and characterize a deterministic model of a fast burst reactor (FBR) using a discrete ordinates neutral particle transport code, PENTRAN. The White Sands Missile Range FBR design was chosen for this research because this FBR is important to the DoD due to its short duration, high energy neutron flux which is representative of the neutron flux output created by a nuclear weapon. One, two, and three dimensional PENTRAN models of the FBR were developed and neutron transport based eigenvalue calculations were performed. These eigenvalue calculations were conducted using two different set of nuclear cross-section data: the Bugle-96 47- energy group library (intended for a thermal reactor design), and a 10-group version of the Bugle-96 library which captured the fast neutron energy groups and a single thermal group. The PENTRAN neutron transport calculation results were compared to an analogous MCNP Monte Carlo model, using continuous energy neutron cross sections. The least computationally expensive PENTRAN neutron flux calculations which also compared favorably with the MCNP calculations, was a 24 direction S4 Pn-Tn based quadrature with a first order Legendre Polynomial (P1) expansion of the scattering term and the 10-energy group neutron cross-section library.
AFIT Designator
AFIT-ENP-MS-17-M-104
DTIC Accession Number
AD1055098
Recommended Citation
Schulmeister, Taylor R., "Modeling the White Sands Missile Range Fast Burst Reactor Using a Discrete Ordinates Code, PENTRAN" (2017). Theses and Dissertations. 1625.
https://scholar.afit.edu/etd/1625