One of the most important safety features of nuclear facilities is the shielding material used to protect the operating personnel from radiation exposure. The most common materials used in radiation shielding are conc...One of the most important safety features of nuclear facilities is the shielding material used to protect the operating personnel from radiation exposure. The most common materials used in radiation shielding are concretes. In this study, a Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended code is used to calculate the gamma-ray attenuation coefficients and dose rates for a new concrete material composed of MnFe_2O_4 nanoparticles, which is then compared with the theoretical and experimental results obtained for a SiO_2 nanoparticle concrete material. According to the results, the average relative differences between the simulations and the theoretical and experimental results for the linear attenuation coefficient(l) in the SiO_2 nanoparticle materials are 6.4% and 5.5%, respectively. By increasing the SiO_2 content up to 1.5% and the temperature of MnFe_2O_4 up to 673 K, l is increased for all energies. In addition, the photon dose rate decreases up to 9.2% and3.7% for MnFe_2O_4 and SiO_2 for gamma-ray energies of0.511 and 1.274 MeV, respectively. Therefore, it was concluded that the addition of SiO_2 and MnFe_2O_4 nanoparticles to concrete improves its nuclear properties and could lead to it being more useful in radiation shielding.展开更多
文摘One of the most important safety features of nuclear facilities is the shielding material used to protect the operating personnel from radiation exposure. The most common materials used in radiation shielding are concretes. In this study, a Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended code is used to calculate the gamma-ray attenuation coefficients and dose rates for a new concrete material composed of MnFe_2O_4 nanoparticles, which is then compared with the theoretical and experimental results obtained for a SiO_2 nanoparticle concrete material. According to the results, the average relative differences between the simulations and the theoretical and experimental results for the linear attenuation coefficient(l) in the SiO_2 nanoparticle materials are 6.4% and 5.5%, respectively. By increasing the SiO_2 content up to 1.5% and the temperature of MnFe_2O_4 up to 673 K, l is increased for all energies. In addition, the photon dose rate decreases up to 9.2% and3.7% for MnFe_2O_4 and SiO_2 for gamma-ray energies of0.511 and 1.274 MeV, respectively. Therefore, it was concluded that the addition of SiO_2 and MnFe_2O_4 nanoparticles to concrete improves its nuclear properties and could lead to it being more useful in radiation shielding.
