Radiation shielding properties of ferro-boron concrete

The problem of shielding against gamma and neutron radiation in nuclear facility have always attracted a great deal of attention. Typically, the best-known materials for shielding both gamma-ray and neutrons are concrete. However, due to low neutron absorption cross section in ordinary concrete, it can only weakly absorb thermal neutrons. In order to increase the neutron capture cross section, additional compound was mixed into the original concrete. In this paper, we have used ferro-boron compound to enhance the radiation shielding properties of concrete. Ferro-boron is an alloy, which is formed by combining iron with boron compound content between 10% to 17%. In this work, Monte Carlo simulation codes of MCNPX was used to simulate the radiation shielding properties of ferro-boron concrete. According to the simulation results, it is clearly shows that adding ferro-boron compound into concrete mixture can significantly enhance the radiation shielding properties of the concrete.