Effect of the Filling Rate on Tungsten Pebble Bed Spallation Target Neutronic Characteristics

The physical model of the high-energy proton bombarding the tungsten pebble bed spallation target is simulated by the MCNPX program. The effect of the filling rate on the neutronic characteristics with different particle diameters is studied, by calculating the leakage neutron yield, leakage neutron spectrum axial neutron flux distribution and the energy deposition of the target. The result shows that when the diameter increases from 1 to 20 mm,the maximum deposited energy density decreases in the target, but the leakage neutron yield increases. When the filling rate reaches 74%, leakage neutron yields are almost the same value with different particle diameters. When the target is piled up with 1 mm tungsten particles, neutron leakage yield changes smaller with the variation of the filling rate than the other diameter particles which is beneficial to maintain the reactor power stability in ADS.