Criticality Safety Analysis

A key part of criticality safety analysis is determining whether a particular scenario will be sub-critical - or not. Sometimes it is possible to achieve this by use of handbook data or simple 'hand calculations'. At other times it is necessary to resort to the use of specialised computer programs, coupled with nuclear data libraries. Information on some of these methods is outlined below.

Criticality Safety Analysis Codes

MONK

MONK uses the Monte Carlo technique to provide an accurate of calculating the multiplication factor k-effective for systems containing fissile material. MONK provides a powerful and flexible geometry modelling capability and a physically realistic account of neutron interactions. MONK is developed in the UK by the ANSWERS Software Service.

WIMS

WIMS is a UK-based general purpose reactor physics program for core physics calculations developed by the ANSWERS Software Service. The current WIMS code combines both deterministic and Monte Carlo reactor physics methods. The WIMS code thus uses a wide variety of methods to solve reactor physics problems and can be used for both benchmark and design type calculations.

MCNP

MCNP is a US-based general-purpose Monte Carlo N-Particle code that can be used for neutron, photon, electron, or coupled neutron/photon/electron transport. Specific areas of application include, but are not limited to, radiation protection and dosimetry, radiation shielding, radiography, medical physics, nuclear criticality safety, Detector Design and analysis, nuclear oil well logging, Accelerator target design, Fission and fusion reactor design, decontamination and decommissioning.

MCNP Home page

The MCNP home page contains a link to the MCNP User Forum

SCALE/KENO

KENO-VI is a 3-D generalized geometry Monte Carlo code that can perform continuous energy (CE) or multigroup (MG) calculations using the latest ENDF/B-VII data in SCALE. SCALE consists of a number of modules that can be combined to perform various aspects of criticality and shielding analysis and is developed at Oak Ridge in the US.

SCALE Home page

SCALE User Group

TRIPOLI

TRIPOLI (CEA, France) is a 3D pointwise Monte Carlo code for radiation protection and shielding, core physics, criticality and nuclear instrumentation studies. It forms part of the CRISTAL suite of codes.

COG

COG is a modern, general-purpose, high fidelity, multi-particle transport code. It has a long history of use in criticality safety studies at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in the USA.

COG Home Page

Criticality Handbooks and Guides

A good selection of criticality standards, handbooks and guides can be found on the US-DOE NCSP website. A number of links to these are included below.