Evaluation of Radiation Transport Through a Nuclear-Grade Sandwich Composite
The development and deployment of microreactors are often synonymous with their transportability; however, designing a shield which is appropriate for both transportation and operations is challenging. A recent approach is the use of composite style shield which combines the reactor pressure vessel and biological shielding into a single unit to enhance the shields effectiveness without degrading the structural properties. To assess the viability of a nuclear grade sandwich composite (NGSC), and understanding of how radiation transports through the shield needs to be understood to select the appropriate materials. This work examines a two-layered NGSC of varying thicknesses with two primary shielding materials (tungsten-tetraboride cermet and boron carbide). To assess the NGSC, quantities of interest including neutron attenuation, photon attenuation, energy deposition, displacements per atom, helium generation, and dose are examined. Altogether, it is found that a combination of both tungsten-tetraboride and boron carbide are necessary to act as an appropriate shield, where the order in which these materials are place in the composite are important to their effectiveness.