Measurements and Monte-Carlo simulations of the particle self-shielding effect of B4C grains in neutron shielding concrete

DiJulio, Douglas D.; Cooper-Jensen, Carsten P.; Llamas‐Jansa, Isabel; Kazi, Saima Sultana; Bentley, Phillip M.

doi:10.1016/j.radphyschem.2018.01.023

Cited by 16 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The water content and density of concrete are rather low, so the cost savings are not proportional. For this reason, a separate project studied concrete hydration [26] and developed a modified recipe for this purpose [27,28]. This is fine for instrument shielding and external shielding surfaces along beamlines, but is not intended for shielding within a radius of a few 10s of cm from the neutron beamlines close to the source target to reduce fast neutron contributions.…”

Section: Shielding At Spallation Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Shielding Copper Substrate Neutron Supermirror Guides

Bentley,

Hall-Wilton,

Cooper-Jensen

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The invention of self-shielding copper substrate neutron guides is described, along with the rationale behind the development, and the realisation of commercial supply. The relative advantages with respect to existing technologies are quantified. These include ease of manufacture, long lifetime, increased thermal conductivity, and enhanced fast neutron attenuation in the keV-MeV energy range. Whilst the activation of copper is initially higher than for other material options, for the full energy spectrum, many of the isotopes are short-lived, so that for realistic maintenance access times the radiation dose to workers is expected to be lower than steel and in the lowest zoning category for radiation safety outside the spallation target monolith. There is no impact on neutron reflectivity performance relative to established alternatives, and the manufacturing cost is similar to other polished metal substrates.

show abstract

Section: Shielding At Spallation Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Shielding Copper Substrate Neutron Supermirror Guides

Bentley,

Hall-Wilton,

Cooper-Jensen

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The hydrogen content of the added polyethylene (PE) thermalizes the neutrons, while the 10 B content of B 4 C absorbs them, providing advantageous shielding properties to the concrete. Enhanced shielding features of the PE-B4C-concrete were already investigated [8]. Our aim though was to measure the neutron activation properties of the PE-B4C-concrete, and compare them to the 'Reference concrete', as lower average activities are expected because of the added less activating components.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neutron activation properties of PE-B4C-concrete assessed by measurements and simulations

Hajdú

Dian

Klinkby

et al. 2020

JNR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The neutron activation properties of the PE-B4C-concrete recently developed for the European Spallation Source (ESS) ERIC (European Spallation Source, https://europeanspallationsource.se/about) were investigated. On the one hand the concrete activation was compared to that of the ordinary concrete from which it was developed by means of irradiating concrete samples in the Budapest Research Reactor (BRR) (Budapest Neutron Centre, https://www.bnc.hu/). On the other hand, the measured activities were used to study the impact of input composition on Monte Carlo activation simulations. For this purpose, the complete course of the irradiation experiments were reproduced with MCNPX and Cinder90 simulations with nominal and measured elemental concrete compositions. Simulations suggest that for realistic activation predictions more detailed elemental compositions are required than the nominal ones. Energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) analysis technique was applied for this purpose, providing fair results for short-term activation estimations.

show abstract

“…These lower energy neutrons are then effectively absorbed by the natural 10 B content of B 4 C. The utilization of additional boron -as a component of colemanite -in concretes for enhancing their shielding properties was investigated before [4; 5]. Later the shielding effect of additional B 4 C and polyethylene in concretes was simulated [6] and also the shielding properties of the above described PE-B4C-concrete [7]. The the effects of activation products on nuclear safety is also known, although less extensively studied [6; 8; 9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental study of concrete activation compared to MCNP simulations for safety of neutron sources

Hajdú

Dian

Gméling

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Radiation shielding properties, characteristics of concretes are well-studied both by simulation and experimentally, unlike the dose consequences of their neutron activation. In this study, the impact of concrete composition on simulated activity was determined. A method was developed for proper implementation of measured concrete compositions as inputs for the simulation of activation and dose exposure by MCNPX-Cinder90; presented with the example of the recently developed PE-B4C-concrete. Dose consequences of neutron-induced decay gamma radiation were simulated in an irradiation scenario of the European Spallation Source (ESS) ERIC. The study highlights the importance of detailed knowledge of concrete composition for such purposes: dose consequences found to be 29-72% higher using our realistic, measurement-based composition as input compared to the use of a nominal concrete composition, given by the manufacturer. This discrepancy is mainly attributed to the generally neglected contribution of trace elements.

show abstract

Measurements and Monte-Carlo simulations of the particle self-shielding effect of B4C grains in neutron shielding concrete

Cited by 16 publications

References 18 publications

Self-Shielding Copper Substrate Neutron Supermirror Guides

Self-Shielding Copper Substrate Neutron Supermirror Guides

Neutron activation properties of PE-B4C-concrete assessed by measurements and simulations

Experimental study of concrete activation compared to MCNP simulations for safety of neutron sources

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About