SIMULATIONS AND LINEAR ATTENUATION CALCULATIONS FOR CONCRETE CASK DESIGN IN RADIATION SHIELDING

Abstract

Concrete is a good substitute material for radiation shielding due to its versatile application in radation shielding designs. It can easily be cast into various shapes and sizes with different types of mixture constituents. The shielding properties of concrete designed with Serpentinite rock aggregates of different granules sizes were investigated, crushing into four different granule sizes of 5 mm, 10 mm, 15 mm and 20 mm respectively, casting of (20) concrete samples, concrete samples weight measurements and concrete sample crushing using a load testing machine for determination of density and compressive strength, the results of the corresponding compressive strengths of the concrete samples showed that the concrete with aggregate size of 10 mm was highest for adequate compressive strength and density of an ordinary concrete, Serpentine concrete of aggregate sizes 10 mm and 15 mm were recommended for optimum design of a radioactive source shielding cask. The simulation was performed using Rad pro computer Software while the experimental research involved exposure of the concrete samples to radioactive sources and monitoring with a radiation survey meter, very high linear attenuation property was observed when the serpentine concrete samples were exposed to a neutron source. The experimentally determined linear attenuation coefficient showed that the values at 15 mm aggregate sizes was highest, which demonstrate that better shielding optimization, was obtained when the concrete cask was fabricated with 15 mm followed by 10 mm aggregate size.