Preliminary study of neutron absorption by concrete with boron carbide addition

Abstract

New shielding material development for compact accelerator-driven neutron source AIP Advances 7, 045213 (2017) . Concrete has become a conventional material in construction of nuclear reactor due to its properties like safety and low cost. Boron carbide was added as additives in the concrete construction as it has a good neutron absorption property. The sample preparation for concrete was produced with different weight percent of boron carbide powder content. The neutron absorption rate of these samples was determined by using a fast neutron source of Americium-241/Be (Am-Be 241) and detection with a portable backscattering neutron detector. Concrete with 20 wt % of boron carbide shows the lowest count of neutron transmitted and this indicates the most neutrons have been absorbed by the concrete. Higher boron carbide content may affect the concrete strength and other properties.

Effect of Borosilicate Glass on Thermal Neutron Shielding Performance and Compressive Strength of Cement Mortar

“…It is known that the thermal neutron shielding rate of concrete increases as the boron content in concrete increases [4,5]. From the results of testing for the neutron shielding performance, the cement mortar with borosilicate glass showed higher thermal neutron shielding rates as the replacement ratio of borosilicate glass in the cement mortar increased.…”

“…Boron carbide (B 4 C) absorbs neutrons without the radiation of secondary gamma ray and is generally used in the neutron shielding application [3]. However, the increase of boron carbide content in a concrete mixture leads to the significant decrease of the compressive strength of concrete [4,5].…”

Design and fabrication of a Nano-based neutron shield for fast neutrons from medical linear accelerators in radiation therapy

“…Concrete and boron carbide-based products are commonly employed as shields for neutrons in radiation therapy due to their properties such as low price and high absorbing cross-sections for shielding neutrons [1,22,24]. Photo-neutrons are produced at the head of medical linac by the interaction of high-energy photons (E > 10 MeV), and patients receive a whole-body-absorbed dose from these neutrons [2,3,14].…”