Radiation shielding properties of modified concrete mixes and their suitability in dry storage cask

Radiation shielding properties of 8 concrete mixes were studied in detail. The concrete mixes included 4 coarse aggregate types; dolomite, barite, ilmenite, and celestite, and 2 cementing material content. Important parameters accounted for in this study include: Mass attenuation coefficient that wa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inProgress in nuclear energy (New series) Vol. 148; p. 104195
Main Authors El-Samrah, M.G., Abreu Zamora, M.A., Novog, D.R., Chidiac, S.E.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2022
Elsevier BV
Subjects
Absorption cross sections
Approximation
Atomic properties
Attenuation coefficients
Barite
Barrels
Celestite
Cementing
Concrete
Concrete mixing
Dolomite
Fast neutrons
Gamma rays
Ilmenite
Mathematical analysis
Mean free path
Neutrons
OpenMC
Radiation shielding
Software
Storage cask
Thermal neutrons
Gamma rays
Neutrons
OpenMC
Radiation shielding
Storage cask
Concrete
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Summary:Radiation shielding properties of 8 concrete mixes were studied in detail. The concrete mixes included 4 coarse aggregate types; dolomite, barite, ilmenite, and celestite, and 2 cementing material content. Important parameters accounted for in this study include: Mass attenuation coefficient that was calculated using WinXCom program then linear attenuation coefficient, half value layer, tenth value layer, and mean free path were deduced; Effective atomic number was calculated using Auto-Zeff software; Exposure build-up factor was calculated using the Geometric Progression approximation method up to 40 mean free path using Phy-X/PSD Software; Fast neutrons macroscopic effective removal cross-section and thermal neutron macroscopic absorption cross-section were calculated using MRCsC and JANIS-4 programs, respectively. Subsequently, the mixes were assessed for use in a dry storage cask using OpenMC code. The results showed that concrete mixes containing barite and celestite were the best in attenuating gamma rays emitted in narrow and broad beam situations.
ISSN:0149-1970
1878-4224
DOI:10.1016/j.pnucene.2022.104195