Effect of concrete buildings on the environmental neutron flux by using the reaction 197Au (n,γ) 198Au and extremely low level gamma ray spectroscopy

ADVANCED NUCLEAR INSTRUMENTATION AND DETECTION

Effect of concrete buildings on the environmental neutron flux by using the reaction 197Au (n,γ) 198Au and extremely low level gamma ray spectroscopy

K. KOMURA
N.K. AHMED
A.H. EL-KAMEL
A.M.M. YOUSEF
Nuclear Science and TechniquesVol.15, No.6pp.368-374Published in print 01 Dec 2004
5200

The activation of gold by environmental neutrons through the reaction 197Au (n,γ) 198Au was used to study the effect of concrete buildings on the neutron flux, and to estimate the thermal neutron flux inside and outside these buildings. The results showed that three ceilings of thickness 34 g/cm2 decrease the fast neutrons to 26% from its original value. However, the same reinforced concrete decreases the slow neturon flux to only 62% of its original value. The thermal neutron flux at 283 m from the center of training Reactor of Kinki University, was twice higher than the environmental neutron background.

Environmental neutronsGoldActivationConcrete
References
[1] Chung C, Chen C Y. J Geophys Res, 1997, 102(D25): 29827
[2] Chung C, Chen C Y, Kung C H. Appl Radiat Isot, 1998, 49(4): 415
[3] Komura K, Ahmed N K, El-Kamel A H et al. Nucl Sci Tech, 2004, 15: 248
[4] Yamashita M, Stephenson L D, Patterson H W. J Geophys Res, 1966, 71(16): 3817
[5] Yousef A M M.

Doctoral thesis

, 2000, South Valley Univ., Egypt
Baidu ScholarGoogle Scholar
[6] Sazonova T E, Zanevsky A V, Kharitonov I A et al. Appl Radiat Isot,1998, 49(9-11): 1185
[7] Komura K.

Challenge to detection limit of environmental radioactivity

, In T. Tsujimoto, Y. Ogawa, Proceeding of the 1997 International Symposium on Environmental Radiation, Tsuruga, Japan, 1998. 56-75
Baidu ScholarGoogle Scholar
[8] Emmett M B. The Monte Carlo radiation transport code system, ORNL-4972, 1975
[9] Kaplan I. Nuclear Physics, (4th ed). Addison-Wesley Publishing Company Inc., USA, 1958
[10] Price K W, Holeman G R, Nath R. Health Physics, 1978, 35: 341
[11] Uwamino Y, Nakamura T. Nucl Instr Meth Phys Res, 1985, A239: 299
[12] O'Brien K, Sandmeier H A, Hansen G E et al. J Geophys Res, 1978, 83(A1): 114