Simulating neutron transport in long beamlines at a spallation neutron source using Geant4

Abstract

The transport of neutrons in long beamlines at spallation neutron sources presents a unique challenge for Monte-Carlo transport calculations. This is due to the need to accurately model the deep-penetration of high-energy neutrons through meters of thick dense shields close to the source and at the same time to model the transport of low-energy neutrons across distances up to around 150 m in length. Typically, such types of calculations may be carried out with MCNP-based codes or alternatively PHITS. However, in recent years there has been an increased interest in the suitability of Geant4 for such types of calculations. Therefore, we have implemented supermirror physics, a neutron chopper module and the duct-source variance reduction technique for low-energy neutron transport from the PHITS Monte-Carlo code into Geant4. In the current work, we present a series of benchmarks of these extensions with the PHITS software, which demonstrates the suitability of Geant4 for simulating long neutron beamlines at a spallation neutron source, such as the European Spallation Source, currently under construction in Lund, Sweden.