Study of the beam-induced neutron flux and required shielding for DIANA

Abstract

Low energy accelerators in underground locations have emerged as a powerful tool for the measurement of critical nuclear reactions for the study of energy production and element synthesis in astrophysics. While cosmic ray induced background is substantially reduced, beam induced background on target impurities and depositions on target and collimator materials remain a matter of serious concern.The Dual Ion Accelerator for Nuclear Astrophysics (DIANA) is proposed to operate as a low-level background facility in an underground location. One of the main goals of DIANA is the study of neutron sources in stellar helium burning. For these experiments DIANA is a neutron radiation source which may affect other nearby low background level experiments. We therefore investigated the required laboratory layout to attenuate the neutron flux generated in a worst-case scenario to a level below the natural background in the underground environment. Detailed Monte Carlo calculations of the neutron propagation in the laboratory show that a neutron flux many orders of magnitude above expected values gets attenuated below the natural background rate using a 1m thick water-shielded door as well as an emergency access/egress maze.