JAEA-Conf 2011-002 - 日本原子力研究開発機構

Figure 3 shows one-group sensitivities to fission and capture cross sections of minor actinides,
and Fig. 4 shows sensitivities to half-lives. The following are observed in these figures:
- As already described, Cm-242 and -243 are generated mainly via Am-241 while Cm-244, -245
and -246 are generated mainly via Am-243. Since the Cm-244 concentration has no
sensitivity to the Cm-243 capture cross section, the link between Cm-243 and -244 in the
burn-up chain is quite weak.
- Except for Cm-242, all the curium isotopes have no sensitivities to the capture cross sections
and half lives of themselves. Thus, the concentrations of these nuclides are far from an
equilibrium state; the generation is much larger than the loss for these nuclides.
- The concentrations of both Cm-245 and -246 are sensitive to the Am-243 and Cm-244 capture
cross sections. On the other hand, the Cm-246 concentration is sensitive to the Cm-245
capture cross section while the Cm-245 concentration is not sensitive to that. The similar
trend can be observed in the concentration sensitivities of Cm-244 and -245. These
similarities and differences in the sensitivities are beneficial to investigate a difference in the
prediction accuracy for concentrations of these nuclides.
Fig. 3 One-group sensitivities of the curium concentrations to minor actinide cross sections
JAEA-Conf 2011-002
Fig. 4 Sensitivities of the curium concentrations to minor actinide half-lives