Ronald J. McConn

Compendium of Material Composition Data for Radiation Transport Modeling

Computational modeling of radiation transport problems including homeland security, radiation shielding and protection, and criticality safety all depend upon material definitions. This document has been created to serve two purposes: 1) to provide a quick reference of material compositions for analysts and 2) a standardized reference to reduce the differences between results from two independent analysts. Analysts are always encountering a variety of materials for which elemental definitions are not readily available or densities are not defined. This document provides a location where unique or hard to define materials will be located to reduce duplication in research for modeling purposes. Additionally, having a common set of material definitions helps to standardize modeling across PNNL and provide two separate researchers the ability to compare different modeling results from a common materials basis.

Coupling Deterministic and Monte Carlo Transport Methods for the Simulation of Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy Scenarios

Simulation is often used to predict the response of gamma-ray spectrometers in technology viability and comparative studies for homeland and national security scenarios. Candidate radiation transport methods generally fall into one of two broad categories: stochastic (Monte Carlo) and deterministic. Monte Carlo methods are the most heavily used in the detection community and are particularly effective for calculating pulse-height spectra in instruments. However, computational times for scattering- and attenuation-dominated problems can be extremely long - many hours or more on a typical desktop computer. Deterministic codes that discretize the transport in space, angle, and energy offer potential advantages in computational efficiency for these same kinds of problems, but pulse-height calculations are not readily accessible. This paper investigates a method for coupling angular flux data produced by a three-dimensional deterministic code to a Monte Carlo model of a gamma-ray spectrometer. Techniques used to mitigate ray effects, a potential source of inaccuracy in deterministic field calculations, are described. Strengths and limitations of the coupled methods, as compared to purely Monte Carlo simulations, are highlighted using example gamma-ray detection problems and two metrics: (1) accuracy when compared to empirical data and (2) computational time on a typical desktop computer.

Deterministic Transport Methods for the Simulation of Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy Scenarios

Radiation transport modeling methods used in the radiation detection community fall into one of two broad categories: stochastic (Monte Carlo) and deterministic. Monte Carlo methods are typically the tool of choice for simulating gamma-ray spectrometers operating in homeland and national security settings (e.g. portal monitoring of vehicles or isotope identification using handheld devices), but deterministic codes that discretize the linear Boltzmann transport equation in space, angle, and energy offer potential advantages in computational efficiency for many complex radiation detection problems. This paper describes the development of deterministic algorithms for simulating gamma-ray spectroscopy scenarios. Key challenges include: formulating methods to automatically define an energy group structure that can support modeling of gamma-ray spectrometers ranging from low to high resolution; combining deterministic transport algorithms (e.g. ray-tracing and discrete ordinates) to mitigate ray effects for a wide range of problem types; and developing efficient and accurate methods to calculate gamma-ray spectrometer response functions from the deterministic angular flux solutions. In this paper, the software framework aimed at addressing these challenges is described and results from test problems that compare deterministic and Monte Carlo approaches are provided.

Characteristics of multiprocessing MCNP5 on small personal computer clusters

The feasibility and efficiency of performing MCNP5 calculations with a small, heterogeneous computing cluster built from Microsoft® WindowsTM personal computers (PC) are explored. The performance increases that may be expected with such clusters are estimated for cases that typify general radiation-shielding calculations. Our results show that the speed increase from additional slave PCs is nearly linear up to 10 processors. Guidance is given as to the specific advantages of changing various parameters present in the system. Implementing load balancing, and reducing the overhead from the MCNP rendezvous mechanism add to heterogeneous cluster efficiency. Hyper-threading technology and matching the total number of slave processes to the total number of logical processors also yield modest speed increases in the range below 7 processors. Because of the ease of acquisition of heterogeneous desktop computers, and the peak in efficiency at the level of a few physical processors, a strong case is made for the use of small clusters as a tool for producing MCNP5 calculations rapidly, and detailed instructions for constructing such clusters are provided.

The Effect of the Three-Dimensional Geometry of Cargo on the Detection of Radioactive Sources in Cargo Containers

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has developed computer models to simulate the screening of vehicles and cargo with radiation portal monitors for the presence of illegitimate radioactive material. In addition, selected measurements have been conducted to validate the models. An important consideration in the modeling of realistic scenarios is the influence of the three-dimensional geometry of the cargo on the measured signature. This is particularly important for scenarios where the source and detector move with respect to each other. Two cases of the influence of the three-dimensional geometry of the cargo on the measured radiation signature are analyzed. In the first, measurements show that spectral data collected from moving sources so as to maximize the gross-counting signal-to-noise ratio has minimal spectral distortion, so that the spectral data can be summed over this time interval. In the second, modeling demonstrates that the ability to detect radioactive sources at all locations in a container full of cargo scales approximately linearly with the vertical height of the detector, suggesting that detectors should be approximately the same height as the container they scan.

Validation of computer models for homeland security purposes

At Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, we are developing computer models of radiation portal monitors for screening vehicles and cargo. Detailed models of the radiation detection equipment, vehicles, cargo containers, cargos, and radioactive sources have been created. These are used to determine the optimal configuration of detectors and the best alarm algorithms for the detection of items of interest while minimizing nuisance alarms due to the presence of legitimate radioactive material in the commerce stream. Most of the modeling is done with the Monte Carlo code MCNP to describe the transport of gammas and neutrons from extended sources through large, irregularly shaped absorbers to large detectors. A fundamental prerequisite is the validation of the computational models against field measurements. We describe the first step of this validation process, the comparison of the models to measurements with bare static sources