Evaluation of shielding and interaction properties of different stainless steel alloys for nuclear power plant shielding

Abstract

This study evaluated the gamma and neutron-shielding parameters, electron and charge particles’ interaction properties of three different stainless steel-based alloys (2507SS, 304SS and AISI1018) with densities of 7.82, 7.81 and 7.82, respectively for deployment in nuclear reactor construction. Gamma shielding parameters were evaluated with Phy-X/PSD, Py-MLBUF and GRASP computer programs within the energy range of 0.2 MeV to 15 MeV. The relative deviations (RD %) between two of these computational platforms were calculated. Fast Neutrons Effective Removal Cross-Sections (FNRCS) and Macroscopic Removal cross-section (MRCS) values for fast neutrons were calculated with Phy-X/PSD and MRCS software, while thermal/fast neutron attenuation factors were calculated with NGCals software. The continuous-slowing-down approximation (CSDA) range and total stopping power (TSP) values of H+ and He++ ions were estimated with SRIM Monte Carlo code in a wide energy range of 1–20 MeV. The projectile range of electrons was computed with ESTAR NIST software within the kinetic energy of 0.01–1000 MeV. Gamma-ray, thermal neutron and fast neutron transmission factors (TFs) values were calculated for all samples for a range of well-known energies. From the obtained results, all evaluated parameters were dependent on the composition of shielding materials, the type of radiation and the photon energy of the radiation. The maximum MAC values obtained from the three alloy samples are 0.1505 cm2/g for 2507SS, 0.1453 cm2/g for 304SS and 0.1459 cm2/g for AISI1018 at 0.02 MeV. These results projected 2507SS as a better shielding alloy when compared with other investigated alloy samples. Considering the closeness of densities of investigated alloy samples the shielding and interaction properties of all alloy samples gave excellent and similar results implying that all investigated alloys will effectively serve as a radiation-shielding material in a nuclear reactor.