Shielding Verifications for a Gamma Irradiation Facility Considering the Installation of a New Automatic Product Loading System

Abstract

A new system has been designed to automatically load the samples to be irradiated at the gamma irradiation facility of the Nuclear Technology Development Centre (CDTN) at Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The objective of this system is the optimization of the experiments performed at the Gamma Irradiation Laboratory for short-time irradiations without interruption of the irradiator cycles. The installation of this new system requires the opening of a hole at the labyrinth door to allow the loading of irradiating products. Due to this alteration on the original design, the door opening into the labyrinth requires shielding verification. The dose rate with the door open is calculated using Monte Carlo MCNPX v 2.6.0 code. The Monte Carlo source simulations were validated with experimental measurements of dose rate. The simulation demonstrated that a hole can be opened at the labyrinth entrance when installing an automatic loading system. Not only does it comply with dose constraint requirements, but it also complies with national and international standards.