Irradiation Damage Calculation with Angular Distribution.

The operating lifetime of a reactor is determined by the irradiation damage which is quantitatively accounted by the number of Displacement per Atom (DPA). The DPA rate is conventionally computed with DPA cross sections in reactor applications. However, the Gauss-Legendre Quadrature (GLQ) method used in current processing codes such as NJOY is shown unable to ensure the convergence of DPA cross sections due to the discontinuity of the damage energy versus the emission angle. The GLQ-based Piecewise Integration (GLQPI) is proposed to ensure the numerical convergence. The integration based on the GLQPI is shown suitable to compute DPA. On the other hand, even if high-order Legendre polynomials are important to describe the anisotropic angular distribution, the DPA cross section is not sensitive to the high-order Legendre polynomials because the former is an angle-integrated quantity. Numerical results of neutron elastic scattering show that 2 orders of Legendre polynomials can give the DPA rates of 56Fe within 0.5% overestimation for fission reactors, while 4 orders are required for fusion reactors. In the case of neutron inelastic scatterings-induced DPA, only the first order Legendre polynomial is sufficient for both fission and fusion reactors.