Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Development and application analysis of high-energy neutron radiation shielding materials from tungsten boron polyethylene

  • Qiankun Shao (Institute of Plasma Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences) ;
  • Qingjun Zhu (Institute of Plasma Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences) ;
  • Yuling Wang (Anhui Yingliu Jiuyuan Nuclear New Material Technology Co., Ltd) ;
  • Shaobao Kuang (Anhui Yingliu Jiuyuan Nuclear New Material Technology Co., Ltd) ;
  • Jie Bao (Department of Nuclear Physics, China Institute of Atomic Energy) ;
  • Songlin Liu (Institute of Plasma Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
  • Received : 2023.11.04
  • Accepted : 2024.01.14
  • Published : 2024.06.25
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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop a high-energy neutron shielding material applied in proton therapy environment. Composite shielding material consisting of 10.00 wt% boron carbide particles (B4C), 13.64 wt% surface-modified cross-linked polyethylene (PE), and 76.36 wt% tungsten particles were fabricated by hot-pressure sintering method, where the optimal ratio of the composite is determined by the shielding effect under the neutron field generated in typical proton therapy environment. The results of Differential Scanning Calorimetry measurements (DSC) and tensile experiment show that the composite has good thermal and mechanical properties. In addition, the high energy-neutron shielding performance of the developed material was evaluated using cyclotron proton accelerator with 100 MeV proton. The simulation shows a 99.99% decrease in fast neutron injection after 44 cm shielding, and the experiment result show a 99.70% decrease. Finally, the shielding effect of replacing part of the shielding material of the proton therapy hall with the developed material was simulated, and the results showed that the total neutron injection decreased to 0.99‰ and the neutron dose reduced to 1.10‰ before the enhanced shielding. In summary, the developed material is expected to serve as a shielding enhancement material in the proton therapy environment.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work is supported by the Fund of Innovation Center of Radiation Application (Grant No. KFZC2021010101), China National special project for magnetic confined nuclear fusion energy of China (Grant No. 2017YFE0301604, 2017YFE0301601), and by Joint Laboratory of Extreme Environmental Materials and Special Processes, Institute of Energy of Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center.

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