Abstract
In this research, a high-boron-content composite material with both neutron and γ rays shielding properties was developed by an optimized design and manufacture. It consists of 304 stainless steel as the matrix and spherical boron carbide (B4C) particles as the functional particles. The content of B4C is 24.68 wt%, and the particles’ radius is 1.53 mm. The density of the newly designed material is 5.17 g·cm−3, about 68.02% of that of traditional borated stainless steel containing 1.7 wt% boron, while its neutrons shielding performance is much better. Firstly, focusing on shielding properties and material density, the content and the size of B4C were optimized by the Genetic Algorithm (GA) program combined with the MCNP program. Then, some samples of the material were manufactured by the infiltration casting technique according to the optimized results. The actual density of the samples was 5.21 g cm−3. In addition, the neutron and γ rays shielding performance of the samples and borated stainless steel containing 1.7 wt% boron was tested by using an 241Am–Be neutron source and 60Co and 137Cs γ rays sources, respectively, and the results were compared. It can be concluded that the new designed material could be used as a material for nuclear power plants or spent-fuel storage and transportation containers with high requirements for mobility.
Highlights
In nuclear fuel reprocessing systems, borated stainless steel (BSS) is widely used in storage and transportation containers for spent nuclear fuel because of its excellent thermal neutron absorption performance and good mechanical properties [1,2,3]
In this paper, spherical boron carbide (B4 C) particles were added to a 304 stainless-steel matrix through the infiltration casting technique, which is different from the alloy casting method [12], to improve the boron content to nearly 20 wt%
The results showed that, compared with BSS containing 1.7 wt% boron, the designed material showed a much better shielding performance for fast neutrons with an average energy of 4.5 MeV and 3.98 MeV, and its mass attenuation coefficient was equivalent to that of BSS for γ rays with an average energy of 0.662 MeV and 1.25 MeV
Summary
In nuclear fuel reprocessing systems, borated stainless steel (BSS) is widely used in storage and transportation containers for spent nuclear fuel because of its excellent thermal neutron absorption performance and good mechanical properties [1,2,3]. BSS is based on 304 stainless steel with limited content of the boron element. The ASTM standard A887 covers eight types of BSS according to their content of B, and the weight percentage of boron is only 0.2–0.25 wt% [11]. For this reason, in this paper, spherical boron carbide (B4 C) particles were added to a 304 stainless-steel matrix through the infiltration casting
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