Investigations on neutron attenuation properties of poly-boron materials using Am-Be and ~(252)Cf sources neutron spectra

摘要

The neutron attenuation characteristics of polyboron materials was studied using Am-Be (alpha,n) and Cf-252 (Spontaneous Fission) sources. Neutron Attenuation Factor (NAF) is obtained for poly boron materials with addition of different concentrations of boron by neutron transmission experiments. Neutron transport calculations are carried by simulating the transmission of neutron from Am-Be and Cf-252 sources through polyboron materials using Monte Carlo based simulations. The experimental results are fairly in good agreement with transport calculations. The results showed that Neutron Attenuation Factor (NAF) mainly depend on the incident neutron energy and boron number density present in HDPE shielding material. The effect of boron in HDPE on neutron shielding is only marginal (2%) because of low value of neutron cross section at fast energy region. However, in the low neutron energy region, it varies with wt % of boron and 20% boron as additive in HPDE is an optimum value for neutron attenuation. The details of experimental observations and theoretical investigations are discussed in this work. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.