Feasibility of Calculating Gamma Photon Spectra Near Nuclear Power Plants Using OpenMC

User Support
1

Hello community,

Is it possible to use the OpenMC code to calculate the spectrum of gamma photons emitted near a nuclear power plant, particularly from fission fragments or (n, gamma) reactions, etc.?

Best regards
ML

2

I suppose it depends. You would have to know the distribution of fission products/contamination in or around the plant, OpenMC won’t model the movement of contaminants for you. If you want a very general idea of gamma spectra around the plant, a crude core and concrete containment structure with a 3D mesh surrounding the plant to tally gamma energy would be feasible.

1 Like
3

Thank you for the response.

My goal is to simulate the transport of gamma to calculate their spectrum in a nuclear power plant while considering the gamma energy released during fission, the gamma decay energy of fission products, and the gamma decay energy of (n,γ) reaction products. If OpenMC cannot perform this, could you suggest another free and open-source code that can accomplish this?

Thank you again

4

There seems to be a misunderstanding. OpenMC can model the buildup of fission products and perform the desired tallies. However, the fission products will be restricted to their designated fuel element volumes. If you want to model some sort of accident or the flow of contamination in the water or something, then things get complicated, and you would have to manually set those conditions (put the desired fission products in the water material definition or create a ruptured pressure vessel geometry ect). Either way, the tally capability for what you want should work fine.