Speaker
Ms
Linina Jurbandam
(University of Witwatersrand)
Description
The knowledge of the fission Q-value is important for the safety analysis of a nuclear reactor. It is around 200MeV/fission in all nuclear reactors, being the energy released from radiative capture (Qϒc), the main source of differences between reactors. In this work, we present a detailed calculation of Qϒc produced in SAFARI-1 using the MCNP-5 (Monte Carlo N-Particle) code. MCNP is a probabilistic transport code that has the capability of solving general geometries with continuous energy data. In particular, we calculate the reaction rate of the nuclides that contribute majorly to the heating in the SAFARI-1 core. From the nuclear reaction rate and the energy released per reaction (binding energy), the total energy produced from radiative capture was calculated. In previous work, the radiative capture energy was calculated as an energy deposition using MCNP-5. From the energy deposition calculation, Qϒc was calculated as 5.42MeV/fission. Using the energy production method, Qϒc was calculated as 6MeV/fission. Typical values for Qϒc range between 3-12MeV/fission. This work takes a closer look at how to arrive at these values using the two methods in MCNP-5.
Main supervisor (name and email)<br>and his / her institution
Dr O. M. Zamonsky- oscar.zamonsky@necsa.co.za
NECSA- South African Nuclear Energy Corporation
Level for award<br> (Hons, MSc, <br> PhD, N/A)?
MSc
Apply to be<br> considered for a student <br> award (Yes / No)?
Yes
Would you like to <br> submit a short paper <br> for the Conference <br> Proceedings (Yes / No)?
Yes
Primary author
Ms
Linina Jurbandam
(University of Witwatersrand)
Co-author
Dr
Oscar. M Zamonsky
(NECSA)
