Development and validation of a calculation scheme for the study of spallator systems

Intermediate-energy particles (from a few tens of MeV to a few GeV) induce nuclear reactions known as spallation reactions when they collide with an atomic nucleus. Spallation reactions are important sources of particles, particularly neutrons. These neutrons can be used for industrial or medical purposes. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the development of a computational scheme enabling project studies to be undertaken in the fields of spallation applications. The first chapter presents three spallation-based applications: hybrid reactors, medical nuclear devices and space flight. The second chapter is devoted to a critical study of models describing spallation. Using the Pnuc (Cugnon, Universite de Louvain, Belgium) and Fluka (Ferrari and Fasso, INFN/Milan, Cern) codes, two different approaches to spallation modeling are compared. The results are also compared with available experimental results. The final chapter deals with the calculation scheme used to quantify various physical quantities characteristic of spallation systems. In particular, we show how the Fluka transport code was coupled with the Darwin/Pepin2 evolution calculation code and the Diane damage calculation code developed at CEA. The calculation scheme developed is applied to an accelerator/target spallation configuration. (author)