Research

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Materials (MDPI)

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April 3, 2023

Assessment of Five Concrete Types as Candidate Shielding Materials for a Compact Radiation Source Based on the IECF

A radiation source based on the inertial electrostatic confinement fusion (IECF) system is being developed for multidisciplinary research applications. The radiation outputs from the IECF system are 2.45 MeV fast neutrons and the associated co-generated X-rays with an energy less than 3 MeV. A radiation shielding study has been performed on five types of concrete to define the most efficient material for the shielding design of the system. The proposed materials were ilmenite-magnetite concrete (IMC), ordinary concrete-1 (OC-1), barite-containing concrete (BC), ordinary concrete-2 (OC-2), and serpentine-containing concrete (SC). A numerical model was applied to determine the effective removal cross-section coefficients for the fast neutrons and the total mass attenuation coefficients, half-value layer, mean free path, effective atomic number, and effective electron density for photons inside the materials.

To read the full article, visit Materials.