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The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is currently under construction in France. From the radiation shielding and radiation protection points of view, an intense and large neutron source with energy around 14.1 MeV will be generated from the D-T plasma zone during the ITER operation and diverse gamma-ray sources from neutron activation of the reactor structure materials and coolant should be considered for the reactor operation and maintenance. To decrease the radiation impacts caused by these neutron and gamma sources, iterative designs and nuclear analyses of ITER components are currently performed with three dimensional Monte Carlo radiation transport calculations. Due to the important dimensions of ITER, the thick tokamak blanket modules, and the diagnostic and functional port openings, variance reduction techniques are essential in these Monte Carlo neutron transport calculations. To verify the reactor components design models and to check the radiation transport calculation results, advanced graphic features of the calculation tool are also necessary. With the growing interest in using the TRIPOLI-4® Monte Carlo radiation transport code for ITER applications, the aim of this paper is to study the feasibility to use variance reduction features of TRIPOLI-4 code on a 3D ITER benchmark model which is a 40° toroidal segment including 5796 vol cells. The calculation results reported in this paper include the axial and radial profiles of the inboard TF coil heating and the neutron flux attenuation through the equatorial port plugs and shield. The performance of the TRIPOLI-4 graphic tool under its parallel computing mode was also evaluated.

3D Monte Carlo transport codes are extensively used in neutronic analysis, especially in radiation protection and shielding analyses for fission and fusion reactors. TRIPOLI-4® is a Monte Carlo code developed by CEA. The aim of this paper is to show its capability to model a large-scale fusion reactor with complex neutron source and geometry. A benchmark between MCNP5 and TRIPOLI-4®, on the ITER A-lite model was carried out; neutron flux, nuclear heating in the blankets and tritium production rate in the European TBMs were evaluated and compared. The methodology to build the TRIPOLI-4® A-lite model is based on MCAM and the MCNP A-lite model. Simplified TBMs, from KIT, were integrated in the equatorial-port. A good agreement between MCNP and TRIPOLI-4® is shown; discrepancies are mainly included in the statistical error.

Beryllium is an important material in fusion technology for multiplying neutrons in blankets. However, beryllium nuclear data are differently presented in modern nuclear data evaluations. Recent investigations with the TRIPOLI-4 Monte Carlo simulation of the tritium breeding ratio (TBR) demonstrated that beryllium reaction data are the main source of the calculation uncertainties between ENDF/B-VII.0 and JEFF-3.1. To clarify the calculation uncertainties from data libraries on beryllium, in this study TRIPOLI-4 calculations of the Karlsruhe Neutron Transmission (KANT) experiment have been performed by using ENDF/B-VII.0 and new JEFF-3.1.1 data libraries. The KANT Experiment on beryllium has been used to validate neutron transport codes and nuclear data libraries. An elaborated KANT experiment benchmark has been compiled and published in the NEA/SINBAD database and it has been used as reference in the present work. The neutron multiplication in bulk beryllium assemblies was considered with a central D–T neutron source. Neutron leakage spectra through the 5, 10, and 17 cm thick spherical beryllium shells were calculated and five-group partial leakage multiplications were reported and discussed. In general, improved C/E ratios on neutron leakage multiplications have been obtained. Both ENDF/B-VII.0 and JEFF-3.1.1 beryllium data libraries of TRIPOLI-4 are acceptable now for fusion neutronics calculations.

3D Monte Carlo (MC) transport codes are of first importance for the assessment of breeding blankets neutronic performances. This article supported by the EFDA Goal Oriented Training Program Eurobreed presents the difference in results between the CEA MC code TRIPOLI-4 and MCNP on two fusion neutronics benchmarks, assessing therefore TRIPOLI-4 calculation capabilities on shielding and tritium production rate (TPR). The first selected benchmark, assessing the shielding capability, is the Frascati neutron generator (FNG) ITER bulk shield experiment whereas the second benchmark, assessing the TPR calculation, is the preliminary design of the FNG helium cooled lithium–lead (HCLL) test blanket module (TBM) mock-up. To ensure the consistency of the geometry description, MCAM tool is used for automatic TRIPOLI − MCNP geometry conversions and check. A good coherence between TRIPOLI-4 and MCNP for neutron flux, reaction rates and TPR calculations is obtained. Moreover, it appears that MCAM performs fast, automatic and appropriate TRIPOLI − MCNP geometry conversions and finally that the tabulated FNG neutron source model from KIT is appropriate for TRIPOLI-4 calculations.

Tritium breeding is an essential element of fusion nuclear technology. A tritium breeding ratio greater than unity is necessary for self-sufficient fueling. To simulate the 14 MeV neutron transport in tritium breeding systems from the D–T fusion reaction, the 3D realistic modeling with Monte Carlo code and the point-wise nuclear data are recommended. Continuous-energy TRIPOLI-4 Monte Carlo transport code has been widely used on the radiation shielding, criticality safety, and fission reactor physics. For supporting the ITER TBM (test blanket module) neutronics study with TRIPOLI-4 code, this paper presents the TRIPOLI-4 simulation of TBR (tritium breeding ratio) for six OKTAVIAN spherical assemblies of Osaka University: Li, Li–C, Pb–Li, Pb–Li–C, Be–Li, and Be–Li–C. It also investigates the impact of nuclear data libraries on TBR calculations from ENDF/B-VI.4, ENDF/B-VII.0, JEFF-3.1, JENDL-3.3, and FENDL-2.1. In general, TRIPOLI-4 produced satisfactory C/E values. Only beryllium of JEFF-3.1 library introduces higher uncertainties.

In order to obtain the tritium diffusivity and solubility in the Li 20 Sn 80 alloy, neutron irradiation experiments for the alloy have been performed. A diffusion model is used to account for the experimental results. The tritium generation rate was calculated by the Monte Carlo Nuclear Particle code (MCNP-4B) with the nuclear data library ENDF/BV to confirm the validity of an assumption in the model. The calculated results agreed with the experimental values within ±10% error. The tritium generation rate in the alloy is almost uniform. It means the assumption of the model is valid.