Validation of the BUGJEFF311.BOLIB, BUGENDF70.BOLIB and BUGLE-96 Cross Section Libraries on the PCA-Replica (Water/Iron) Neutron Shielding Benchmark Experiment

Three-dimensional (3D) fixed source transport calculations in Cartesian (X,Y,Z) geometry for the PCA-Replica 12/13 water/iron (H2O/Fe) engineering neutron shielding benchmark experiment were performed with the TORT-3.2 discrete ordinates (SN) code. The ENEA-Bologna BUGJEFF311.BOLIB (JEFF-3.1.1 data) and BUGENDF70.BOLIB (ENDF/B-VII.0 data) broad-group coupled (47 n + 20 γ) working cross section libraries in FIDO-ANISN format together with the similar ORNL BUGLE-96 (ENDF/B-VI.3 data) library, specifically conceived for LWR shielding and pressure vessel dosimetry applications, were alternatively used together with dosimeter cross sections, processed from the IAEA IRDF-2002 dosimetry file. The ENEA-Bologna programs ADEFTA-4.1 and BOT3P-5.3 were respectively employed for the calculation of the isotopic atomic densities and for the automatic generation of the spatial mesh grid of the geometrical model. The calculated integral and spectral results were compared with the corresponding experimental data, respectively obtained with threshold activation dosimeters (Rh-103(n,n')Rh-103m, In-115(n,n')In-115m and S-32(n,p)P-32), spherical hydrogen-filled proportional counters (type SP-2) and a spherical organic liquid (NE213) scintillator. PCA-Replica, reproducing the ex-core geometry of a PWR, is particularly fit to test the cited working libraries since it was specifically conceived to check calculated fast neutron fluxes in a PWR mild steel pressure vessel simulator.