• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.15-15
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• 2011

As you know, boron compounds, borax ($Na_2B_4O_5(OH)_4{\cdot}8H_2O$) etc. were known thousands of years ago. As for natural boron, it has two naturally occurring and stable isotopes, boron 11 ($^{11}B$) and boron 10 ($^{10}B$). The neutron absorption $^{10}B$ is included about 19~20% with 80~81% $^{11}B$. Boron is similar to carbon in its capability to form stable covalently bonded molecular networks. The mass difference results in a wide range of ${\beta}$ values between the $^{11}B$ and $^{10}B$. The $^{10}B$ isotope, stable with 5 neutrons is excellent at capturing thermal neutrons. For example, it is possible to decrease a thermal neutron required for the nuclear reaction of uranium 235 ($^{235}U$). If $^{10}B$ absorbs a neutron ($^1n$), it will change to $^7Li+^1{\alpha}$ (${\alpha}$ ray, like $^4He$) with prompt ${\gamma}$ ray from $^{11}B$ $^{11}B$ (equation 1). $$^{10}B+^1n\;{\rightarrow}\;^{11}B\;{\rightarrow}\; prompt \;{\gamma}\;ray (478 keV), \;^7Li+4{\alpha}\;(4He)\;\;\;\;{\cdots}\; (1)$$ If about 1% boron is added to stainless steel, it is known that a neutron shielding effect will be 3 times the boron free steel. Enriched boron or $^{10}B$ is used in both radiation shielding and in boron neutron capture therapy. Then, $^{10}B$ is used for reactivity control and in emergency shutdown systems in nuclear reactors. Furthermore, boron carbide, $B_4C$, is used as the charge of a nuclear fission reaction control rod material and neutron cover material for nuclear reactors. The $B_4C$ powder of natural B composition is used as a charge of a control material of a boiling water reactor (BWR) which occupies commercial power reactors in nuclear power generation. The $B_4C$ sintered body which adjusted $^{10}B$ concentration is used as a charge of a control material of the fast breeder reactor (FBR) currently developed aiming at establishment of a nuclear fuel cycle. In this study for new boron compound, silicon boride ceramics for capturing thermal neutrons, preparation and characterization of both silicon tetraboride ($SiB_4$) and silicon hexaboride ($SiB_6$) and ceramics produced by sintering were investigated in order to determine the suitability of this material for nuclear power generation. The relative density increased with increasing sintering temperature. With a sintering temperature of 1,923 K, a sintered body having a relative density of more than 99% was obtained. The Vickers hardness increased with increasing sintering temperature. The best result was a Vickers hardness of 28 GPa for the $SiB_6$ sintered at 1,923K for 1 h. The high temperature Vickers hardness of the $SiB_6$ sintered body changed from 28 to 12 GPa in the temperature range of room temperature to 1,273 K. The thermal conductivity of the SiB6 sintered body changed from 9.1 to 2.4 W/mK in the range of room temperature to 1,273 K.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.470-477
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• 2018

With a highly functional methyl vinyl silicone rubber (VMQ) matrix and filler materials of $B_4C$, PbO, and benzophenone (BP) and through powder surface modification, silicone rubber mixing, and vulcanized molding, a flexible radiation shielding and resistant composite was prepared in the study. The dispersion property of the powder in the matrix filler was improved by powder surface modification. BP was added into the matrix to enhance the radiation resistance performance of the composites. After irradiation, the tensile strength, elongation, and tear strength of the composites decreased, while the Shore hardness of the composites and the crosslinking density of the VMQ matrix increased. Moreover, the composites with BP showed better mechanical properties and smaller crosslinking density than those without BP after irradiation. The initial degradation temperatures of the composites containing BP before and after irradiation were $323.6^{\circ}C$ and $335.3^{\circ}C$, respectively. The transmission of neutrons for a 2-mm thick sample was only 0.12 for an Am-Be neutron source. The transmission of ${\gamma}$-rays with energies of 0.662, 1.173, and 1.332 MeV for 2-cm thick samples were 0.7, 0.782, and 0.795, respectively.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.262-268
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• 2022

This paper introduces a novel concept of the pulsed neutron facility (PNF) for maximizing the production of the thermal neutrons and its application to medical use based on prompt gamma neutron activation analysis (PGNAA) using Monte Carlo simulations. The PNF consists of a compact D-T neutron generator, a graphite pile, and a detection system using Cadmium telluride (CdTe) detector arrays. The configuration of fuel pins in the graphite monolith and the design and materials for the moderating layer were studied to optimize the thermal neutron yields. Biological samples - normal and cancerous breast tissues - including chlorine, a trace element, were used to investigate the sensitivity of the characteristic γ-rays by neutron-trace material interactions and the detector responses of multiple particles. Around 90 % of neutrons emitted from a deuterium-tritium (D-T) neutron generator thermalized as they passed through the graphite stockpile. The thermal neutrons captured the chlorines in the samples, then the characteristic γ-rays with specific energy levels of 6.12, 7.80 and 8.58 MeV were emitted. Since the concentration of chlorine in the cancerous tissue is twice that in the normal tissue, the count ratio of the characteristic g-rays of the cancerous tissue over the normal tissue is approximately 2.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.39-45
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• 1972

In neutron shielding, the scattering effect is equally important as the attenuations in shielding materials. In the present study, the scattered dose equivalent was measured using a Rem counter for water, paraffin, borated paraffin, ordinary and heavy concrete, lead, iron, and tissue equivalent material in three different angles: 45$^{\circ}$, 90$^{\circ}$, and 135$^{\circ}$, respectively. The measurements were performed for the neutron, having the energies of 0.5, 1, 2, 5, and 18 MeV, which are produced from the Van do Graaff accelerator. The scattered dose equivalent ratios were increased with increasing the thickness of scattering materials and saturated at a certain thickness although they were different from one to other materials under study. The ratios were large for lead and iron while they were small for the hydrogen containing materials such as water and paraffin etc.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.1970-1978
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• 2021

The aim of this study was to optimize the target, moderator, and collimator (TMC) in a neutron beam generator for the accelerator-based BNCT (A-BNCT) system. The optimization employed the Monte Carlo Neutron and Photon (MCNP) simulation. The optimal geometry for the target was decided as the one with the highest neutron flux among nominates, which were called as angled, rib, and tube in this study. The moderator was optimized in terms of consisting material to produce appropriate neutron energy distribution for the treatment. The optimization of the collimator, which wrapped around the target, was carried out by deciding the material to effectively prevent the leakage radiations. As results, characteristic of the neutron beam from the optimized TMC was compared to the recommendation by the International Atomic Energy Agent (IAEA). The tube type target showed the highest neutron flux among nominates. The optimal material for the moderator and collimator were combination of Fluental (Al₂0₃+AlF₃) with ⁶⁰Ni filter and lead, respectively. The optimized TMC satisfied the IAEA recommendations such as the minimum production rate of epithermal neutrons from thermal neutrons: that was 2.5 times higher. The results can be used as source terms for shielding designs of treatment rooms.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.784-791
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• 2019

In the present study, a series of tungsten austenitic stainless steel alloys have been developed by interchanging the molybdenum in standard SS316 by tungsten. This was done to minimize the long-life residual activation occurred in molybdenum and nickel after decommissioning of the power plant. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the prepared alloys are determined. For the sake of increasing multifunction property of such series of tungsten-based austenitic stainless steel alloys, gamma shielding properties were studied experimentally by means of NaI(Tl) detector and theoretically calculated by using the XCOM program. Moreover, fast neutrons macroscopic removal cross-section been calculated. The obtained combined mechanical, structural and shielding properties indicated that the modified austenitic stainless steel sample containing 1.79% tungsten and 0.64% molybdenum has preferable properties among all other investigated samples in comparison with the standard SS316. These properties nominate this new composition in several nuclear application domains such as, nuclear shielding domain.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.10
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• pp.3803-3810
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• 2022

OpenMC is a community-driven open-source Monte Carlo neutron and photon transport simulation code. The Weight Window Mesh (WWM) function and an automatic Global Variance Reduction (GVR) method was recently developed and implemented in a developmental branch of OpenMC. This WWM function and GVR method broaden OpenMC's usage in general purposes deep penetration shielding calculations. However, the Local Variance Reduction (LVR) method, which suits the source-detector problem, is still missing in OpenMC. In this work, the Weight Window Generator (WWG) function has been developed and benchmarked for the same branch. This WWG function allows OpenMC to generate the WWM for the source-detector problem on its own. Single-material cases with varying shielding and sources were used to benchmark the WWG function and investigate how to set up the particle histories utilized in WWG-run and WWM-run. Results show that there is a maximum improvement of WWM generated by WWG. Based on the above results, instructions on determining the particle histories utilized in WWG-run and WWM-run for optimal computation efficiency are given and tested with a few multi-material cases. These benchmarks demonstrate the ability of the OpenMC WWG function and the above instructions for the source-detector problem. This developmental branch will be released and merged into the main distribution in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.295-300
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• 2015

There are various type of particle accelerators such as Kyoungju 100-MeV proton beam accelerator in Korea. And Korea plans to build large particle accelerator such as heavy ion accelerator and 4th generation light source facility. The accelerated high energy particles of these facility produce 2nd neutron after nuclear reaction with target materials. And then these 2nd neutron activate structural materials and surrounding environment. Accordingly, it is important to consider the activation and shielding calculation on design of facility for safety operation. In this study, we tried to calculate and compare the neutron flux from the interaction $^{la}150$ beam with target material(Cu) according to thickness of iron and concrete shielding material by MCNPX 2.7 with nuclear library JENDL/HE 07and la150. To verify the properties of nuclear library, we compared computational results with experimental value. These results can be used for dose evaluation technology in planning of the shielding of large particle accelerator.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.524-532
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• 1997

ffects of radiation on the thermal and mechanical properties of modified epoxy resin and hydrogenated bisphenol-A type epoxy resin based neutron shielding materials to be used for radioactive material shipping and storage casks have been investigated. The onset temperatures of the shielding materials of KNS(Kaeri Neutron Shield)-201 and KNS-302 increased with the radiation dose, but those of KNS-202 and KNS-301 decreased at radiation dose above 0.5 MGy. In addition, the radiation dose rarely affected the change of weight of shielding materials with the variation in temperature. At radiation dose up to 0.1 MGy, thermal conductivities of shielding materials were not affected. The thermal expansion coefficients of the shielding materials of KNS-301 and 302 were affected to a less extent than those of KNS-201 and 202 by radiation. At radiation dose up to 0.1 MGy, the tensile strength, compressive strength and flexural strength of the shielding materials of KNS-202 and KNS-301 and 302 increased with the radiation dose. In contrast, those of KNS-201 decreased with an increase in the radiation dose. In addition, the amount of radiation dose on the shielding materials did not result in a measurable loss of specific gravity, weight and hydrogen content.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.909-917
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• 2018

3D printing technology is expected to be an innovative technology of the manufacturing industry during the 4th industrial revolution, and it is being used in various fields including biotechnology and medical field. In this study, we verified the printing materials through Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate the radiation shielding ability of the raw material using this 3D printing technology. In this paper, the printing materials were selected from the raw materials available in a general-purpose FDM-based 3D printer. Simulation of the ICRU phantom and the shielding system was carried out to evaluate the shielding effect by evaluating the particle fluence according to the type and energy of radiation. As a result, the shielding effect tended to decrease gradually with increasing energy in the case of photon beam, and the shielding effect of TPU, PLA, PVA, Nylon and ABS gradually decreased in order of materials. In the case of the neutron beam, the neutron intensity increases at a low thickness of 5 ~ 10 mm. However, the effective shielding effect is shown above a certain thickness. The shielding effect of printing material is gradually increased in the order of Nylon, PVA, ABS, PLA and TPU Respectively.