Reflection of Fast Neutrons from Water

The backscattering of fast (0.3, 1, 3, 6, 9, and 14 Mev) neutrons from a semi-infinite water medium has been calculated by the Monte Carlo method. The information obtained includes the joint angular and spectral distribution of the reflected neutrons, the dependence of the number albedo and energy albedo on the source energy and obliquity, and the contributions to the albedo of successive orders of scattering. The spectra were calculated down to epithermal energies (~0.5 ev). The results for each case are based on the analysis of 3,000 neutron histories, generated with the use of an IBM–704 computer. In the random sampling, elastic scattering from hydrogen and oxygen, inelastic scattering from oxygen, and absorption due to n-α. and n-p processes were taken into account. The cross sections for some of these interactions are not well known. Parallel calculations with different assumptions about the cross sections were made in order to estimate how sensitively the albedo depends on the cross sections. The paper includes a self-contained description of the Monte Carlo method, its application to the calculation of radiation diffusion and in particular to the neutron albedo problem. Emphasis is placed on the technique of correlated sampling which makes possible an accurate estimate of albedo differences resulting from different assumptions about the cross sections. The random sampling computations were supplemented by analytical calculations of the single-scattering albedo. This was useful for an understanding of the Monte Carlo results because a considerable fraction of the reflected neutrons return after only one collision.