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Advancing the MCNP Unstructured Mesh Calculations at ORNL’s Second Target Station with Attila4MC-CottonwoodTM

Lukas Zavorka, Igor Remec, Andrew Cooper, Jonathan Rogers, Gregory Failla

Nuclear Science and Engineering / Volume 200 / Number 2 / February 2026 / Pages 312-319

Research Article / dx.doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2025.2551385

Received:April 1, 2025
Accepted:August 15, 2025
Published:January 13, 2026

The Second Target Station (STS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Spallation Neutron Source is designed to become the world’s highest peak brightness source of cold neutrons. To design a complex radiation facility such as the STS in a timely manner, the latest radiation transport computational tools are necessary. In this work we discuss the application the new Attila4MC ® mesh generator and the new Attila4MC-CottonwoodTM variance reduction module, both developed by Silver Fir Software, Inc. The new tools were used to generate unstructured mesh geometry and coupled neutron-photon weight windows for the subsequent MCNP simulation of energy deposition, radiation damage, and prompt dose rate for several STS components with significantly increased efficiency.