Detailed Monte Carlo simulations on secondary radiation emissions of polymer based neutron shielding materials

Abstract

Abstract Since radiation safety is a sensitive issue in terms of health, this situation poses a significant problem. In order to raise awareness among researchers while preparing future studies on this problem, in this study, the interactions between fast neutrons and 10 different polymer-based shielding materials determined from the literature were modeled with the GEANT4 Monte Carlo code. The fast neutron shielding performances of the samples and the emitted secondary radiation and radioactivity have been reported. When evaluated number and mean energies of created particles, in order to solve this problem, the sum of the risk factors obtained by multiplying these values for each sample can provide us with the opportunity to make a more accurate evaluation. When these values are examined, sample P9 is at the top of the risk ranking with a value of 1823472, while sample P6 is at the bottom with a value of 146246. As a result, it has been revealed that these samples, which have good fast neutron shielding properties, also produce high levels of radiation and radioactive nuclei.