Overview of recent experimental works on high energy neutron shielding

Abstract

Several experiments on high energy neutron shielding have recently been performed using medium to high energy accelerators of energies above 20 MeV. Below 100 MeV, the benchmark experiments have been done using 25 and 35 MeV p-Li quasi-monoenergetic neutrons at the Cyclotron and Radioisotope Center (CYRIC), Tohoku University, Japan, 43 and 68 MeV p-Li quasi-monoenergetic neutrons at the Azimuthally Varying Field (AVF) cyclotron facility, TIARA of Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI). Above 100 MeV, the neutron shielding experiments have been done using 800 MeV protons at ISIS, Rutherford Appleton laboratory (RAL), England, 400 MeV/nucleon carbon ions at the heavy ion medical accelerator facility, HIMAC of National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIBS), Japan, 500 MeV protons at the spallation neutron source facility, KEK spallation neutron source facility (KENS) of High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Japan, 500 MeV protons at the accelerator facility, TRIUMF, Canada, 1.6 to 24 GeV protons at the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS), Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), U.S.A., 28.7 GeV electrons at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAG), U.S.A., 800 MeV protons at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), U.S.A., 120, 205 GeV/c protons and 160 GeV/nucleon lead ions at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland, 230 MeV protons at the Loma Linda University Medical Center, U.S.A., 200 MeV protons at the Orsay Proton Therapy Center, France. In this review paper, the outlines of these deep penetration experiments are summarized together with the neutron detection techniques.