Homogenized group cross sections by Monte Carlo

Homogenized group cross sections play a large role in making reactor calculations efficient. Because of this significance, many codes exist that can calculate these cross sections based on certain assumptions. However, the application to the High Flux Reactor (HFR) in Petten, the Netherlands, the limitations of such codes imply that the core calculations would become less accurate when using homogenized group cross sections (HGCS). Therefore we developed a method to calculate HGCS based on a Monte Carlo program, for which we chose MCNP. The implementation involves an addition to MCNP, and a set of small executables to perform suitable averaging after the MCNP run(s) have completed. Here we briefly describe the details of the method, and we report on two tests we performed to show the accuracy of the method and its implementation. By now, this method is routinely used in preparation of the cycle to cycle core calculations for HFR. (authors)