A Monte Carlo Code for Radiation Damage of Reactor Fuel Cells Steel and Polyethylene by High Energy Gamma and Electrons

Abstract

The purpose of this research work was to develop a computational tool based on Monte Carlo simulation in which high energy photons and electrons are allowed to irradiate the materials of advanced reactor systems for example fuel cell, Steel and Vanadium. The study is extended for radiation damage of high density polyethylene because of its scope. newlineThe proposed study quotA Monte Carlo Code for radiation damage of reactor fuel cells, steel and polyethylene by high energy Gamma and Electronsquot is chosen because there are only few codes available for radiation damage of materials due to the transport of photon and electrons. The available codes are not fully dedicated to the study of radiation damage and some of the important codes are not even accessible to India. Using the developed JA-IPU code, gamma induced radiation damage has been calculated because in certain reactor design like boiling water reactors (BWR) there is a large water gap which makes incident gamma flux at reactor pressure vessel (RPV) more important than the fast neutron flux. Due to the large gap neutrons get thermalized and gamma losses energy insignificantly. This leads to exponential increase in gamma to neutron induced radiation damage. newlineThe gamma does not directly produce the radiation damage inside a material but it ejects electrons via three main processes i) Compton scattering ii) photo-electric effect and iii) pair production which in turn, produce radiation damage of the material. Hence, development of a code for gamma and electrons become important. The process of transport of gamma and electrons is highly stochastic in nature, so Monte Carlo technique has been used.