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Performance Improvement of Weight Window Method by Incorporating DXTRAN

Zhanpeng Huang, Yunki Jo, Qingming He, Liangzhi Cao, Hongchun Wu, Deokjung Lee

Nuclear Science and Engineering / Volume 199 / Number 9 / September 2025 / Pages 1391-1405

Research Article / dx.doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2024.2438570

Received:July 23, 2024
Accepted:November 24, 2024
Published:July 11, 2025

This study introduces a novel DXTRAN-based weight window generator (DWWG) for variance reduction in Monte Carlo (MC) radiation shielding calculations implemented in the MCS code developed at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology. DWWG eliminates the iterative generation required by traditional weight window generators (WWGs) while ensuring target region scoring through the embedded DXTRAN. By incorporating virtual tracks of DXTRAN into the importance estimation, DWWG produces high-quality weight windows. Performance verification of two radiation shielding problems demonstrated that weight windows generated by DWWG, when combined with direct simulation or DXTRAN, yielded increased figures of merit and reduced relative standard deviations. These results establish DWWG as an effective WWG for variance reduction in MC simulations.