Date of Award

3-1-1991

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering

Department

Department of Engineering Physics

First Advisor

Kirk A. Mathews, PhD

Abstract

This study investigated the reflection of neutron radiation off of the earth's upper atmosphere, with the goal of generating a quick-running computer algorithm to estimate the albedo free field flux at any point above the atmosphere. This thesis involved analytic development in the construction of the algorithm and employed Monte Carlo simulation for generating the energy and angle distributions of the reflected radiation. The Green's function approach to modeling the neutron transport process involved approximating each energy bin of the source spectrum as a Dirac pulse in energy and summing the contribution from each source bin. The computer program integrates over the surface of the atmosphere and uses the Monte Carlo data to calculate the albedo flux at any specified time and location. Run time was maximum of six minutes for a flux calculation, but a gain on the order of one thousand should be achieved on mainframe computer systems. The albedo flux from an instantaneous point source raises quickly to a maximum and then falls off over time. Albedo fluxes as much as 10-16 (neutrons/square cm sec/source neutron) were calculated. The accuracy of the algorithm is greatly affected by the fineness of the energy bins involved.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-GNE-ENP-91M-1

DTIC Accession Number

ADA238884

Comments

The author's Vita page is omitted

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