Serpent neutronics model of Wendelstein 7-X for 14.1 MeV neutrons

Simppa Äkäslompolo*, Jan Paul Koschinsky, Joona Kontula, Christoph Biedermann, Sergey Bozhenkov, Taina Kurki-Suonio, Jaakko Leppänen, Antti Snicker, Robert Wolf, Glen Wurden, W7-X Team

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    4 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    In this work, a Serpent 2 neutronics model of the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator is prepared, and an response function for the Scintillating-Fibre neutron detector (SciFi) is calculated using the model. The neutronics model includes the simplified geometry for the key components of the stellarator itself as well as the torus hall. The objective of the model is to assess the 14.1 MeV neutron flux from deuteron-triton fusions in W7-X, where the neutrons are modelled only until they have slowed down to 1 MeV energy. The key messages of this article are: demonstration of unstructured mesh geometry usage for stellarators, W7-X in particular; technical documentation of the model and first insights in fast neutron behaviour in W7-X, especially related to the SciFi: the model indicates that the superconducting coils are the strongest scatterers and block neutrons from large parts of the plasma. The back-scattering from e.g. massive steel support structures is found to be small. The SciFi will detect neutrons from an extended plasma volume in contrast to having an effective line-of-sight.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number112347
    JournalFusion Engineering and Design
    Volume167
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jun 2021
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Funding

    This work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 and 2019-2020 under grant agreement No 633053. This work was partially funded by the Academy of Finland project No. 328874 and No. 324759. The authors wish to acknowledge CSC - IT Center for Science, Finland, for computational resources as well as the Max-Planck computing & data facility for the same. The HPCE3 programme and Walter Ahlström foundation contributed to the funding of the work.

    Keywords

    • Neutrons
    • Scintillating fibre
    • Serpent
    • Simulation
    • Wendelstein 7-X

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