Neutron-shielding behaviour investigations of some clay-materials

Abstract

The fast-neutron shielding behaviour (FNSB) of two clay-materials (Ball clay and Kaolin)of Southwestern Nigeria (7.49°N, 4.55°E) have been investigated using effective removal cross section, ΣR(cm-1), mass removal cross section, ΣR/ρ(cm2g-1) and Mean free path, λ (cm). These parameters decide neutron shielding behaviour of any material. A computer program - WinNC-Toolkit has been used for computation of these parameters. The toolkit evaluates these parameters by using elemental compositions and densities of samples. The proficiency of WinNC-Toolkit code was probe by using MCNPX and GEANT4 to model fast neutron transmission of the samples under narrow beam geometry, intending to represent the actual experimental setup. Direct calculation of effective removal cross section (cm−1) of the samples was also carried out. The results from each of the methods for each types of the studied clay-materials (Ball clay and Kaolin) shows similar trend. The trend might be the fingerprint of water content retained in each of the samples being baked at different temperature. The compositions of each sample have been obtained by Particle-Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) technique (Tandem Pelletron Accelerator: 1.7 MV, Model 5SDH). The FNSB of the selected clay-materials have been compared with standard concrete. The cognizance of various factors such as availability, thermo-chemical stability and water retaining ability by the clay-samples can be analyzed for efficacy of the material for their FNSB.