Norihiro Matsuda

Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System, PHITS, version 2.52

An upgraded version of the Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System, PHITS2.52, was developed and released to the public. The new version has been greatly improved from the previously released version, PHITS2.24, in terms of not only the code itself but also the contents of its package, such as the attached data libraries. In the new version, a higher accuracy of simulation was achieved by implementing several latest nuclear reaction models. The reliability of the simulation was improved by modifying both the algorithms for the electron-, positron-, and photon-transport simulations and the procedure for calculating the statistical uncertainties of the tally results. Estimation of the time evolution of radioactivity became feasible by incorporating the activation calculation program DCHAIN-SP into the new package. The efficiency of the simulation was also improved as a result of the implementation of shared-memory parallelization and the optimization of several time-consuming algorithms. Furthermore, a number of new user-support tools and functions that help users to intuitively and effectively perform PHITS simulations were developed and incorporated. Due to these improvements, PHITS is now a more powerful tool for particle transport simulation applicable to various research and development fields, such as nuclear technology, accelerator design, medical physics, and cosmic-ray research.

Measurement of air dose rates over a wide area around the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant through a series of car-borne surveys

A series of car-borne surveys using the Kyoto University RAdiation MApping (KURAMA) and KURAMA-II survey systems has been conducted over a wide area in eastern Japan since June 2011 to evaluate the distribution of air dose rates around the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant and to evaluate the time-dependent trend of decrease in air dose rates. An automated data processing system for the KURAMA-II system was established, which enabled rapid analysis of large amounts of data obtained using about 100 KURAMA-II units. The initial data used for evaluating the migration status of radioactive cesium were obtained in the first survey, followed by other car-borne surveys conducted over more extensive and wider measurement ranges. By comparing the measured air dose rates obtained in each survey (until December 2012), the decreasing trend of air dose rates measured through car-borne surveys was found to be more pronounced than those expected on the basis of the physical decay of radioactive cesium and of the air dose rates measured using NaI (Tl) survey meters in the areas surrounding the roadways. In addition, it was found that the extent of decrease in air dose rates depended on land use, wherein it decreased faster for land used as building sites than for forested areas.

Features of Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS) version 3.02

ABSTRACT We have upgraded many features of the Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS) and released the new version as PHITS3.02. The accuracy and the applicable energy ranges of the code were greatly improved and extended, respectively, owing to the revisions to the nuclear reaction models and the incorporation of new atomic interaction models. Both condense history and track-structure methods were implemented to handle the electron and positron transport, although the latter is reliable only for simulations in liquid water. In addition, several user-supportive functions were developed, such as new tallies to efficiently obtain statistically better results, radioisotope source-generation function, and software tools useful for applying PHITS to medical physics. Owing to the continuous improvement and promotion of the code, the number of registered users has exceeded 3,000, and it is being used in diverse areas of study, including accelerator design, radiation shielding and protection, medical physics, and cosmic-ray research. In this paper, we summarize the basic features of PHITS3.02, especially those of the physics models and the functions implemented after the release of PHITS2.52 in 2013.

Experimental studies of shielding and irradiation effects at high-energy accelerator facilities

Abstract Experimental studies of shielding and radiation effects are carried out at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL) under collaboration between FNAL and Japan, aiming at benchmarking simulation codes and studying irradiation effects for the upgrade and design of new high-energy accelerator facilities. The purposes of this collaboration are (a) acquisition of shielding data in a proton beam energy region above 100 GeV, (b) further evaluation of predictive accuracy of the PHITS and MARS codes, (c) modification of physics models and data in these codes if needed, (d) characterization of radiation fields for studies of radiation effects, and (e) development of a code module for an improved description of radiation effects. The first campaign of the experiment was carried out at the Pbar target station and NuMI experimental station at FNAL, which use irradiation of targets with 120-GeV protons for antiproton and neutrino production, respectively. The generated secondary particles passing through steel, concrete, and rock were measured by activation methods as well as by other detectors such as a scintillator with a veto counter, phoswich detector, and a Bonner ball counter on trial. Preliminary experimental and calculated results are presented.

Evaluation of dose rate reduction in a spacecraft compartment due to additional water shield

The dose reduction rates brought about by the installation of additional water shielding in a spacecraft are calculated in the paper using the particles and heavy ion transport code system PHITS, which can deal with transport of all kinds of hadrons and heavy ions with energies up to 100 GeV/n in three-dimensional phase spaces. In the PHITS simulation, an imaginary spacecraft was irradiated isotropically by cosmic rays with charges up to 28 and energies up to 100 GeV/n, and the dose reduction rates due to water shielding were evaluated for 5 types of doses: the dose equivalents obtained from the LET and linear energy spectra, the dose equivalents to skin and red bone marrow, and the effective dose equivalent. The results of the simulation indicate that the dose reduction rates differ according to the type of dose evaluated. For example, 5 g/cm2 water shielding reduces the effective dose equivalent and the LET dose equivalent by approximately 14% and 32%, respectively. Such degrees of dose reduction can be regarded to make water shielding worth the efforts required to install it.

Benchmark study of the recent version of the PHITS code

ABSTRACT We performed a benchmark study for 58 cases (22 cases reported in this paper and 36 cases reported in online as supplementary materials of this paper) using the recent version (version 2.88) of the Particle and Heavy-Ion Transport code System (PHITS) in the following fields: (1) particle production cross-sections for nuclear reactions from 20 MeV to 1 GeV, (2) thick-target neutron yields and neutron shielding, (3) depth–dose distribution in water using 12C beam, and (4) electron and photon transportation over a wide-energy range from keV to GeV. Overall agreements were found to be sufficiently satisfactory; however, several discrepancies are observed, particularly in particle productions with energies below 100 MeV, neutron production for 7Li(p,n)7Be, and photonuclear reactions. To overcome these inaccuracies and to further improve the code, it will be necessary to incorporate a high-energy version of the evaluated nuclear data library JENDL-4.0/HE and the photonuclear data file JENDL-PD in the PHITS package.

Impact of PHITS spallation models on the neutronics design of an accelerator-driven system

ABSTRACT The impact of different spallation models and parametrisation of nucleon–nucleus interactions in the particle transport code PHITS on the nuclear characteristics of an accelerator-driven system (ADS) is investigated. Cut-off neutrons below 20 MeV calculated using the default option of the current spallation model (i.e. Liège intranuclear cascade (INC) model version 4.6, INCL4.6) are found to be 14% less than those calculated by the old spallation model (i.e. Bertini INC model). This decrease increases the proton beam current that drives the 800-MW thermal power and impacts various ADS parameters, including material damage, nuclear heating of the proton beam window and the inventory of spallation products. To validate these options based on the ADS neutronics design, we conduct benchmark calculations of the total and non-elastic cross sections, thick target neutron yields and activation reaction rate distributions. The results suggest that Pearlstein–Niita systematics, which is a default option of the nucleon–nucleus interaction parametrisation, would be the best option and that Bertini INC is better suited for cut-off neutrons than INCL4.6. However, because of the difficulty in making a definite conclusion on the spallation models, we conclude that relatively large uncertainty in the cut-off neutrons, which is the difference between the two spallation models (i.e. 14%), should be considered.

Development of a calculation system for the estimation of decontamination effects

A calculation system for the estimation of decontamination effects (CDE) is developed in the present work to aid in the effective planning of decontamination procedures. This system calculates dose rate distribution before and after decontamination according to the distribution of radioactivity and the decontamination factor. A dose rate reduction factor is also used to estimate decontamination effects. Results obtained from CDE were compared with measurements and particle and heavy-ion transport code system (PHITS) simulations. The CDE successfully reproduced the measured and calculated dose rate distributions, requiring less than several seconds of calculation time.

Excitation functions of the nat Cr(p,x) 44 Ti, 56 Fe(p,x) 44 Ti, nat Ni(p,x) 44 Ti and 93 Nb(p,x) 44 Ti reactions at energies up to 2.6 GeV

Due to potential level of energy intensity 178m2Hf is an extremely interesting isomer. One possible way to produce this isomer is irradiation of natTa or natW samples with high energy protons. Irradiation of natTa or natW samples performed for other purposes provides an opportunity to study the corresponding reactions. This paper presents the 178m2Hf independent production cross sections for both targets measured by the gamma-ray spectrometry method. The reaction excitation functions have been obtained for the proton energies from 40 up to 2600 MeV. The experimental results were compared with calculations by various versions of the intranuclear cascade model in the well-known codes: ISABEL, Bertini, INCL4.5+ABLA07, PHITS, CASCADE07 and CEM03.02. The isomer ratio for the natTa(p,x) 178m2Hf reaction is evaluated on the basis of the available data.

Fitting Method for Spectrum Deduction in High-Energy Neutron Field Induced by GeV-Protons Using Experimental Reaction-Rate Data

The Japanese and American Study of Muon Interaction and Neutron detection (JASMIN) collaboration, has been conducting shielding experiments using the Fermilab anti-proton target station (Pbar) shielding assembly. A multi-foil technique was used to measure the high energy neutron spectra, in the range of 1 to 100 MeV, for the target station shielding configuration. The neutron spectra were de-convoluted using a new fitting method. This method is based on the assumption that a neutron spectrum can be expressed as a simple sum of two exponentials. The validity of the fitting method was confirmed by comparison with the results obtained using SAND-II computer code and theoretical calculations. Finally, it was found that there are simple correlations between reaction rates and the adjustable parameters in the fitting function.