Calculations of cosmic-ray helium transport in shielding materials

Abstract

The transport of galactic cosmic-ray helium nuclei and their secondaries through bulk shielding is considered using the straight-ahead approximation to the Boltzmann equation. A data base for nuclear interaction cross sections and secondary particle energy spectra for high-energy light-ion breakup is presented. The importance of the light ions H-2, H-3, and He-3 for cosmic-ray risk estimation is discussed, and the estimates of the fractional contribution to the neutron flux from helium interactions compared with other particle interactions are presented using a 1977 solar minimum cosmic-ray spectrum.