Neutronic Safety Analysis of Pu-238 Production at Idaho National Laboratory

This analysis was completed to support the irradiation of plutonium-238 production targets in the North East Flux Trap (NEFT) in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) as a part of the campaign to restart domestic production of plutonium-238 used in radioisotope power systems (RPS) by the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) and Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Office of Nuclear Infrastructure Program (NE-3). Referred to as the PFS-ATR-GEN1-NEFT experiment, the assembly was designed to hold 46 Pu-238 production targets in the NEFT. The scope of this paper is to outline the MCNP to ORIGEN2 in Python (MOPY) method used to calculate the heat generation rates, flux, and fission density and to quantify the viability of the target design for Pu-238 production in ATR.