Study of concrete activation with IFMIF-like neutron irradiation: Status of EAF and TENDL neutron activation cross-sections

Power Engineering Department, UNED. Madrid, Spain

^a e-mail: maurigarciac@ind.uned.es

Published online: 13 September 2017

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to check the performance of last versions of EAF and TENDL libraries (EAF2007, EAF2010, and TENDL2014) in the prediction of concrete activation under the neutron irradiation environment expected in IFMIF, an accelerator-based neutron source conceived for fusion materials testing. For this purpose Activity and dose rate responses of three types of concrete (ITER-Bioshield kind, barite and magnetite concretes) have been studied. For these quantities, dominant nuclides and production pathways have been determined and, then, a qualitative analysis of the relevant activation cross-sections involved has been performed by comparing data from mentioned libraries with experimental data from EXFOR database. Concrete activation studies have been carried out with IFMIF-like neutron irradiation conditions using the ACAB code and EAF and TENDL libraries. The cooling times assessed are related to safety and maintenance operations, specifically 1 hour, 1 day and 12 days. Final conclusions are focused on the recommendations for the activation library to be used among those analyzed and cross-section data to be improved.