Comprehensive Second-Order Adjoint Sensitivity Analysis Methodology (2nd-ASAM) Applied to a Subcritical Experimental Reactor Physics Benchmark: III. Effects of Imprecisely Known Microscopic Fission Cross Sections and Average Number of Neutrons per Fission

D. G. Cacuci, R. Fang, J. A. Favorite, M. C. Badea and F. Di Rocco
Additional contact information
D. G. Cacuci: Center for Nuclear Science and Energy, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
R. Fang: Center for Nuclear Science and Energy, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
J. A. Favorite: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Applied Physics (X) Division, MS F663, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
M. C. Badea: Center for Nuclear Science and Energy, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
F. Di Rocco: Center for Nuclear Science and Energy, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 21, 1-67

Abstract: The Second-Order Adjoint Sensitivity Analysis Methodology (2nd-ASAM) is applied to compute the first-order and second-order sensitivities of the leakage response of a polyethylene-reflected plutonium (PERP) experimental system with respect to the following nuclear data: Group-averaged isotopic microscopic fission cross sections, mixed fission/total, fission/scattering cross sections, average number of neutrons per fission (), mixed /total cross sections, /scattering cross sections, and /fission cross sections. The numerical results obtained indicate that the 1st-order relative sensitivities for these nuclear data are smaller than the 1st-order sensitivities of the PERP leakage response with respect to the total cross sections but are larger than those with respect to the scattering cross sections. The vast majority of the 2nd-order unmixed sensitivities are smaller than the corresponding 1st-order ones, but several 2nd-order mixed relative sensitivities are larger than the 1st-order ones. In particular, several 2nd-order sensitivities for 239 Pu are significantly larger than the corresponding 1st-order ones. It is also shown that the effects of the 2nd-order sensitivities of the PERP benchmark’s leakage response with respect to the benchmark’s parameters underlying the average number of neutrons per fission, , on the moments (expected value, variance, and skewness) of the PERP benchmark’s leakage response distribution are negligible by comparison to the corresponding effects (on the response distribution) stemming from uncertainties in the total cross sections, but are larger than the corresponding effects (on the response distribution) stemming from uncertainties in the fission and scattering cross sections.

Keywords: polyethylene-reflected plutonium sphere; 1st- and 2nd-order sensitivities to microscopic fission cross sections; 1st- and 2nd-order sensitivities to the average number of neutrons per fission; expected value; variance and skewness of leakage response (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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