Overview of the Monte Carlo Simulator of Point Model Neutrons (MASTODON) Software Application

Year
2016
Author(s)
Martyn T. Swinhoe - Los Alamos National Laboratory
Stephen Croft - Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Andrew D. Nicholson - Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Scott Stewart - Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Angela T. Simone - University of Tennessee
Abstract
The Monte Carlo Simulator of Point Model Neutrons (MASTODON) software application is currently under development at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. MASTODON is intended to provide researchers a way to easily use the point model assumption of neutron behavior in a detector, as well as user defined input probabilities of various interactions, to simply generate a neutron list mode pulse train. The application is being written to facilitate the exploration and understanding of dead-time phenomena in neutron counting for safeguards applications, although it could also be used to help simulate neutron detection for pulsed neutron applications. The application is being developed in Microsoft Visual Studio using the Visual C# programming language, and it includes a graphical user interface written in Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) for ease of access. This paper focuses specifically on the capabilities of the MASTODON application and includes some preliminary comparisons of pulse trains generated in MASTODON to pulse trains generated experimentally.