Novel Bonner Sphere Spectrometer Response Functions Using MCNP6

Authors

• Andrew W.. Decker, Air Force Institute of Technology
• Stephen R. McHale, Air Force Institute of Technology
• Michael P. Shannon, Air Force Institute of Technology
• Justin A. Clinton, Air Force Institute of Technology
• John W. McClory, Air Force Institute of TechnologyFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-2015

Abstract

Bonner Sphere Spectrometer response functions were computed using MCNP6 and compared to response functions calculated by Mares and Schraube (1994) using MCNP4. The simulated environment exposed a LiI(Eu) scintillator crystal to neutrons of discrete energy levels from thermal through 25 MeV, with energy resolution identical to that documented by Mares and Schraube. The shapes of the response functions were found to be in excellent agreement with previous data, but the MCNP6-calculated functions differed consistently from the Mares and Schraube data by a factor of two, which is possibly due to ambiguity within their published methodology. Regardless, a comparison of the response functions calculated from MCNP6 and MCNP4 were assessed as >99% significant using a chi-squared test with 25 degrees of freedom.

Comments

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DOI

10.1109/TNS.2015.2416652

Source Publication

IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (ISSN 0018-9499)

Recommended Citation

A. W. Decker, S. R. McHale, M. P. Shannon, J. A. Clinton and J. W. McClory, "Novel Bonner Sphere Spectrometer Response Functions Using MCNP6," in IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, vol. 62, no. 4, pp. 1689-1694, Aug. 2015, doi: 10.1109/TNS.2015.2416652.