Comparison of Temperature-Dependent Cross Section Treatments Within the Shift Monte Carlo Radiation Transport Code

Multiple calculation methods have been developed to account for Doppler broadening of cross sections in Monte Carlo radiation transport simulations. This work compares the accuracy and performance of four different broadening methods, including an on-the-fly multipole treatment, applied to three different geometries of increasing complexity, including a nuclear reactor assembly with a realistic temperature profile. The comparisons reveal how the combination of physics implementations in the Shift Monte Carlo code result in slightly different temperature-dependent behavior, and different levels of performance, for a variety of materials and situations.