Fusion Neutronics workshop

A selection of resources for learning fusion neutronics simulations with a particular focus on OpenMC, DAGMC and Paramak

There is a slide deck that introduces the workshop and each task.

There is also a Gather Town space which is great for working through the workshop with colleagues.

These examples require specific versions of software packages and nuclear data to run correctly. Therefore I highly recommend making use of the containerized environment to run these example notebooks.

The repository has benefited greatly from user feedback. Please feel free to raise GitHub issues or reach out in the discussions section if you spot anything that needs fixing or think of an improvement. Pull requests are very welcome.

The video below gives a brief explainer of what to expect in the workshop and some motivation for learning neutronics.

Tasks	Keywords	Video(s)	CI test status
Task 1 - Cross sections	Nuclear data, cross-sections, MT numbers, Doppler	link1 link2 link3 link4
Task 2 - Materials	Materials, Neutronics Material Maker, Mixed materials	link
Task 3 - CSG geometry	CSG geometry, Geometry visualisation	link
Task 4 - Sources	Neutron point sources, Gamma sources, Plasma sources, Neutron track visualization	link
Task 5 - TBR	Tritium Breeding Ratio, Cell tallies, Simulations	link
Task 6 - DPA	Displacements Per Atom, Cell tallies, Simulations, Volume calculations	link
Task 7 - Neutron and photon spectra	Neutron Spectra, Photon Spectra, Cell tallies, Energy group structures, Flux, Current	link
Task 8 - Mesh tallies	Mesh tallies, Structured meshes	link
Task 9 - Instantaneous Dose	Instantaneous Dose, Cell tallies, Dose coefficients
Task 10 - Activation transmutation depletion	Isotope build up and tally variation as a function of time
Task 11 - CSG shut down Dose	Shut down Dose, Cell tallies, Dose coefficients
Task 12 - Detector examples	Time filter detector response time of flight
Task 13 - stochastic volume calculation	stochastic volume material atoms in cell
Task 14 - Variance_reduction	Variance reduction, weight windows
Task 15 - Making CAD geometry	Parametric CAD geometry, Paramak, Geometry visualisation	link
Task 16 - CAD Cell tallies	CAD-based neutronics, Cell tallies, DAGMC, Heating
Task 17 - CAD Mesh tallies	CAD-based neutronics, Mesh tallies, Paramak, DAGMC, Fast flux

Local Installation

There are video tutorials for this section which accompany the step by step instructions below.

• Ubuntu installation video 👉

  

• Windows installation video 👉

  

• Mac installation video 👉

  

1. Install Docker CE for Ubuntu, Mac OS, or Windows, including the part where you enable docker use as a non-root user.

2. Pull the docker image from the store by typing the following command in a terminal window, or Windows users might prefer PowerShell.

   docker pull ghcr.io/fusion-energy/neutronics-workshop

   Expand - Having permission denied errors?

   
        If you are running the command from Linux or Ubuntu terminal and getting permission denied messages back.
        Try running the same command with with elevated user permissions by adding sudo at the front.
        sudo docker pull ghcr.io/fusion-energy/neutronics-workshop
        Then enter your password when prompted.
        

3. Now that you have the docker image you can enable graphics linking between your os and docker, and then run the docker container by typing the following commands in a terminal window.

   docker run -p 8888:8888 ghcr.io/fusion-energy/neutronics-workshop

   Expand - Having permission denied errors?

   
        If you are running the command from Linux or Ubuntu terminal and getting permission denied messages back.
        Try running the same command with elevated user permissions by adding sudo at the front.
        sudo docker run -p 8888:8888 ghcr.io/fusion-energy/neutronics-workshop
        Then enter your password when prompted.
        

4. A URL should be displayed in the terminal and can now be opened in the internet browser of your choice. Select and open the URL at the end of the terminal printout (highlighted below)

To check the tasks run try opening the first task in the half day workshop folder and running the Jupyter Lab code (either click on the triangular run button or click on the first code cell and press shift and enter to execute that cell).

Optional Packages for Local Installation

This is not required for the half day workshop but some of the more advanced tasks do require Paraview and or FreeCAD.

1. Some tasks require the use of Paraview to view the 3D meshes produced. Parview can be downloaded from here.

   Expand - Ubuntu terminal commands for Paraview install

   
        sudo apt update && sudo apt-get install paraview
        

2. Some tasks require the use of CAD software to view the 3D geometry produced. FreeCAD is one option for this and can be downloaded here.

   Expand - Ubuntu terminal commands for FreeCAD install

   
            sudo apt update && sudo apt-get install freecad
            

Run in the cloud

The repository is also ready for deployment on GitHub Codespaces which allows users to launch the containerized environment on more powerful cloud computers without installing anything locally.

• To get started sign up to codespaces 👉 codespaces

• Then follow 👉 this link to config a compute instance 👉

  

• VS Code will then launch in the browser, once loaded you must select the conda python interpreter to enable the correct Python environment.