Benchmark Experiment for Neutron Transport in Nickel

Abstract

A description of an experiment providing the verification of the accuracy of the available neutron cross section for use in the transport calculations of the deep penetration of neutrons is presented. The neutron leakage spectrum from the nickel sphere of diameter 50 cm with ²⁵²Cf neutron source in the sphere centre was measured. The set of spectrometers consisted of a stilben scintilator, a hydrogen proportional counter and Bonner balls. The calculation of neutron transport in the nickel sphere was performed with the modified version of ANISN-JR code using the multi-group cross section libraries EUKLIB-4 and VITAMIN-C, Comparison of the calculated and experimental results have been utilized to determine the accuracy of the transport calculations using these two different cross section data sets for practical purposes.