Benchmarking FENDL-2.1 with impact of ENDF/B-VII.0 release on nuclear heating and damage

Abstract

MCNP calculations for a calculational benchmark representative of an early ITER design were carried out to investigate the impact of ENDF/B-VII.0 release on FENDL-2.1. The results presented in this work clearly show that the previously observed differences in nuclear heating and radiation damage are removed when the correctly processed ENDF/BVII. 0 data are used. Differences in all nuclear parameters are very small (≪1%) implying that minimal impact is expected on ITER analysis and updating the FENDL-2.1 library is not urgently needed for ITER analysis. Calculations for an inertial fusion power plant showed larger changes in nuclear heating, and radiation damage due to the large changes in the H-3 and Au-197 data that affect the energy spectrum of neutrons emitted from the ICF target. The results confirm the need for updating FENDL-2.1 for use in analysis of fusion systems beyond ITER.