Evaluation of a simplified version of KENO V. a on a parallel processors computer

KENO V.a is a widely used Monte Carlo criticality code developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory for use primarily on large single processor mainframe computers. The code can be very costly to use if a large number of histories is required because the histories are performed sequentially via the single processor. With the advent of parallel processor computers, it should be possible to reduce computing costs (i.e., computer run time) by performing the histories in parallel. The purposes of this work is to implement KENO V.a on a parallel processor computer, specifically the NCUBE and then to compare results obtained on the NCUBE (i.e., accuracy and computing time) with results obtained on a large mainframe computer (IBM 3033). The NCUBE is a message-passing machine with no shared memory. A simplified version of KENO V.a was developed for this study because the standard version was too large to compile on the NCUBE. In addition, a special 1-group cross-section library, reduced from the standard 16-group Hansen Roach Library, was also used. The sample problem used in this study was an 18-cm-diam sphere of /sup 235/U at 0.05 atom/b x cm.