Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2023) 138: 435
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-023-03998-z

Technical Report

Experimental campaign on ordinary and baritic concrete samples for the SORGENTINA-RF plant: the SRF-bioshield tests

¹ ENEA-Radiation Protection Institute, Bologna, Italy
² Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare - Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Frascati, Italy
³ ENEA - Department of Fusion and Technologies for Nuclear Safety and Security, Rome, Italy
⁴ SVA S.r.l.-BARIBLOCK, Noventa di Piave, Italy
⁵ Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy
⁶ ENEA - Italian National Institute of Ionizing Radiation Metrology, Rome, Italy
⁷ ASL Roma 6, Borgo Garibaldi, 12, 00041, Albano Laziale, RM, Italy
⁸ ENEA - Management of Infrastructures and Services, Rome, Italy
⁹ ENEA - Department Energy Technologies and Renewable Sources, Rome, Italy
¹⁰ ENEA - Department for Sustainability, Rome, Italy

^a paolo.ferrari@enea.it

Received: 14 December 2022
Accepted: 15 April 2023
Published online: 22 May 2023

Abstract

The SORGENTINA-RF project aims at designing and realizing an accelerator-driven 14 MeV fusion neutron source. The bio-shielding of this plant must guarantee a maximum contact dose rate of 10 Sv/h. For radiation protection purposes, baritic concrete is typically used in -ray sources. The higher density of the baritic concrete allows to obtain the same attenuation of the ordinary one, but over smaller thicknesses, albeit with higher production costs. In order to verify the effectiveness of the preliminary design of the SORGENTINA-RF neutron source relying on the use of both ordinary and baritic concrete layers, both neutron and -ray attenuation measurements were carried out. Neutron measurements were performed at the Frascati Neutron Generator (ENEA Frascati Research Center), while -rays measurements were carried out using the Co source of the ENEA Bologna Research Center. The measurements were corroborated by Monte Carlo simulations performed by means of the MCNP6 code. The good agreement between experiments and simulations allowed to establish that the use of a layer of baritic concrete for the SORGENTINA-RF bio-shielding does not appear to be neither advantageous or cost-effective in terms of attenuation of the n/ radiation field, then suggesting the use of only ordinary concrete for the whole shielding design.