Proton induced radioactivity and neutron yields in tantalum and copper using Monte Carlo simulation
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Proton induced radioactivity and neutron yields in tantalum and copper using Monte Carlo simulation Biju Keshavkumar1 · Vitisha Suman1 · D. S. Joshi1 · M. S. Kulkarni1 Received: 4 February 2020 © Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary 2020
Abstract The quantification of induced activity in the accelerator structures and their decay profiles are required to be studied for planning the maintenance operations and the disposal procedures. This paper studies in detail the yield of radioactivity generated in the common beam dump materials, like copper and tantalum irradiated with proton beams of 10 and 20 MeV and their decay profiles using Fluka Monte Carlo simulations. The neutron yields and ambient dose equivalent rates generated from the target materials are also estimated using Fluka Monte Carlo code and are presented. Few of the estimated neutron ambient dose equivalent rates are experimentally validated. Keywords Induced activity · Neutron yield · Fluka · Monte Carlo method
Introduction The measurement and control of secondary radiation fields at high energy ion beams in the positive ion accelerators are of importance for effective implementation of radiation safety procedures such as shielding and administrative controls for safe operation. In addition to this, high energy proton beams induces radio activity in the accelerator structural materials resulting in radiation field in the accelerator vault even after when accelerator is switched off. This poses exposure to workers during the maintenance operations and also disposal of the accelerator components after its useful life time. Hence, the detailed study on quantification and analysis of the induced activity is also necessary from the health physics point of view. There are studies reported on the activation of accelerator magnets and collimators by proton beams of very high energy in the order of few hundreds of MeV to GeV [1–4]. In the medium energy range, activation of air is reported for a 30 MeV proton accelerator [5]. General guidelines and empirical formulations are available to estimate the approximate radio activation and associated radiological hazards in particle accelerators [6]. The activation processes in particle accelerators are very specific to
the material of construction, the energy, type of the ion and strength of the beam and is required to be addressed case by case. Presently initial phase of a low energy high intensity proton accelerator (LEHIPA) is being commissioned, targeting to 20 MeV energy in Mumbai, India [7]. In this context, this study presents the detailed Monte Carlo simulations of proton induced radioactivity and neutron yields generated in the common beam dump materials, tantalum (Ta) and copper (Cu) target irradiated with high energy protons of 10 and 20 MeV.
Monte Carlo simulations Geometry Simulations are done using Fluka Monte Carlo code [8, 9]. The geometry of the simulation used is as shown in Fig. 1. A pencil beam of proton of 10 MeV and 20 MeV is considered to be incident on a circular target of radius 2.5 mm and th
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