APPLICATION OF THE MCNP6.1 CODE TO ESTIMATE THE DIRECTIONAL DEPENDENCE OF RADIATION PROTECTION FACTOR VALUES FOR A...

Area of Science:

• Nuclear Engineering
• Radiation Shielding
• Computational Physics

Background:

• Radiation protection factor (RPF) is crucial for US defense and civil support organizations.
• Accurate RPF calculations are needed for effective shielding design.
• Understanding angular dependence of shielding is vital for real-world scenarios.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an equation for quantifying angular-dependent radiation shielding.
• To compute and tabulate energy- and angular-dependent RPF values.
• To assess the impact of computational methods on RPF calculations.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Monte Carlo N-Particle Code (MCNP6.1) for radiation transport simulations.
• Computed ambient dose equivalent, H*(10), for over 70 mono-energetic photon and neutron fields.
• Calculated directional dose equivalent, H'(10,α), for a surrogate vehicle at 13 incidence angles.

Main Results:

• Compared kerma approximation with energy deposition methods in MCNP6.1.
• Recast dose equivalent values into energy- and angular-dependent RPF values.
• Tabulated RPF values for various shielding geometries and radiation fields.

Conclusions:

• The study provides a method to quantify angular-dependent radiation protection.
• RPF values are presented for practical implementation in shielding design.
• The findings support defense and civil organizations in radiation safety assessments.