The Method of Characteristics for 2-D Multigroup and Pointwise Transport Calculations in SCALE/CENTRM

SCALE 6 computes problem-dependent multigroup (MG) cross sections through a combination of the conventional Bondarenko shielding-factor method and a deterministic pointwise (PW) transport calculation of the fine-structure spectra in the resolved resonance and thermal energy ranges. The PW calculation is performed by the CENTRM code using a 1-D cylindrical Wigner-Seitz model with the white boundary condition instead of the real rectangular cell shape to represent a lattice unit cell. The pointwise fluxes computed by CENTRM are not exact because a 1-D model is used for the transport calculation, which introduces discrepancies in the MG self-shielded cross sections, resulting in some deviation in the eigenvalue. In order to solve this problem, the method of characteristics (MOC) has been applied to enable the CENTRM PW transport calculation for a 2-D square pin cell. The computation results show that the new BONAMI/CENTRM-MOC procedure produces very precise self-shielded cross sections compared to MCNP reaction rates.