Benchmarking of synthesized 3-D SN transport methods for pressure vessel fluence calculations with Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo calculations of pressure vessel (PV) neutron fluence have been performed to benchmark discrete ordinates (SN) transport methods. These calculations, along with measured data at the ex-vessel cavity dosimeter, provide a means to examine various uncertainties associated with the SN transport calculations. For the purpose of the PV fluence calculations, synthesized 3-D deterministic models are shown to produce results that are quite comparable to results from Monte Carlo methods, provided the two methods utilize the same multigroup cross section libraries. Differences between continuous energy Monte Carlo and multigroup SN calculations are analyzed and discussed