Parametric study of spallation targets for the MYRRHA reactor using MCNPX simulations

Nuclear Engineering Department, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Ilha do Fundão s/n, 21941-914 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

^* Corresponding author, email: junior.rebello@poli.ufrj.br

Abstract

The present work aims to evaluate the behavior of neutron multiplicity in a spallation target using MCNPX simulations, focusing on its application in the MYRRHA reactor. It was studied the two types of spallation target proposed for the MYRRHA project, windowless and windows target, in order to compare them and find saturation boundaries. Some saturation boundaries were found and the windowless target proved to be as viable as the windows one. Each one produced nearly the same number of neutrons per incident proton. Using the concept of neutron cost, it was also observed that the optimum conditions on neutron production occur at about 1GeV, for both target designs.