Title: The use of wooden-boron carbide assembly as a neutron shield

Authors: Ahmed Rashad El-Sersy

Addresses: Department of Ionizing Radiation, National Institute for Standards, Tersa St. El-Haram Giza, Egypt

Abstract: In this work, a neutron shield made of successive layers of beech wood and boron carbide (B4C) is proposed. Attenuation coefficient (μ) of B4C-to-wood assembly has been determined for different neutron energies. This was carried out to achieve a good neutron shield with reasonably high performance. Suggested configuration (arrangement) of B4C-to-wood was considered to reduce the total shield thickness. Comparison between the suggested B4C-to-wood shield with the tradition neutron shielding of borated wax and concrete was studied. The B4C-to-wood thickness ratio of 0.5 to 1 was found to be convenient as a neutron shield in comparison with that of borated wax. Attenuation coefficient (μ) values of low density shield as B4C-wood and borated wax were found to be greater than those of concrete by about one order of magnitude. A suggested two-stage neutron shield assembly was successfully found to be a good choice where the neutron shield thickness was reduced to about 1/5 of its value.

Keywords: borated wood; neutron shield assembly; neutron shielding; boron carbide; beech wood; shield thickness.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNEST.2016.077477

International Journal of Nuclear Energy Science and Technology, 2016 Vol.10 No.2, pp.97 - 106

Received: 24 Aug 2015
Accepted: 17 Mar 2016

Published online: 03 Jul 2016 *

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