Recommendations for a production discrete-ordinates coupled electron-photon transport capability

The purpose of this study was to determine if a production capability for discrete-ordinates coupled electron-photon transport calculations should be developed and, if so, to recommend how it should be done. It is concluded that such a capability should be developed. The purpose of this report is to detail reasons for making these conclusions, and further to make specific recommendations regarding the manner in which this dvelopment should be carried out. The discrete ordinates method is a deterministic method originally developed to solve the neutron transport equation. For this purpose, it has proven to be an accurate and efficient technique. In particular, it has proven to be much more efficient than Monte Carlo methods in one spatial dimension. All current production methods for coupled electron-photon transport calculations are based upon the condensed history method developed by Berger. This method is generally quite expensive for problems of interest to the weapons radiation effects community, even when the problems are limited to one spatial dimension. Thus, routine engineering design calculations involving coupled electron-photon transport must often be performed with rather crude and inaccurate methods due to cost constraints. The existence of this global deficiency is the main motivation for developing a discrete-ordinates coupled electron-photon transport capability. It has the potential of being as accurate as Monte Carlo yet efficient enough to be used in routine engineering design calculations