Estimation of the neutron field around the HERA proton beam dump

Abstract

In this article we present estimates for the neutron fluences above 0.1 MeV to be expected around the proton beam dump of the HERA machine at DESY at 1000 GeV incident energy. The most important details of the absorber and tunnel layout are approximately modeled using the Cartesian and combinatorial geometry packages. In our method a volume neutron source for MORSE Monte Carlo neutron transport calculations has been determined from star densities obtained from the FLUKA Monte Carlo hadronic shower code, combined with estimates of low-energy neutron yields based on results of intranuclear cascade calculations and of the statistical model of evaporation. The calculated neutron fluences are in reasonable agreement with results obtained by the FLUNEV version of the FLUKA code, currently developed at DESY, as well as with estimates based on empirically determined conversion factors between star density and neutron fluence. Additionally, we present neutron spectra and the corresponding dose equivalents as well as the absorbed doses in beam dump materials obtained from the FLUNEV code.