Publications

Multigroup neutron cross sections were generated for the deterministic radiation transport code SCEPTRE. ENDF/B-VII.1 nuclear data files were downloaded from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), processed with the LANL cross-section preparation code NJOY-2012, and post-processed to produce a SCEPTRE-formatted cross section file. A simple radiation transport problem was used to compare results calculated with MCNP, a continuous-energy radiation transport code from LANL, to results calculated with SCEPTRE using the NJOY-2012-produced multigroup cross sections. This problem was used to debug the python scripts used to post-process the NJOY-2012 output and to assess the accuracy of the multigroup cross sections. These comparisons demonstrate that the multigroup cross sections generated in this work are accurate for most elements but yielded inaccurate results for several common transition metals. This discrepancy appears to result from poor treatment of the resolved resonance region of the continuous-energy cross sections. Further work is recommended to investigate alternative methods to treat these resonances with NJOY-2012.