Radiological Characterization with a Fluence Conversion Coefficients–Based Method: A Practical Example of the Preparatory Studies to the Pilot Beam at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

Abstract

At high-energy accelerator facilities like the ones that are part of the accelerator complex at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Monte Carlo radiation transport codes are widely employed to face the challenges of estimating radionuclide production yields and activities with the aim of performing the radiological characterization of activated components. Indeed, it is of paramount importance to ensure adequate radiation protection during scheduled maintenance, transport, and handling of these components and to establish their proper disposal pathway once they ultimately reach the end of their useful life. This paper summarizes the principles of the fluence conversion coefficients method that was developed as a complementary approach for radiological characterization studies. Then, the Monte Carlo simulations in preparation to the pilot beam run at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in 2021 are presented as a practical example of possible applications. Finally, the flexibility of the method and the most relevant operational radiation protection implications are discussed in relation to the provided example.

Keywords:

• Radiation protection
• Monte Carlo
• FLUKA
• Large Hadron Collider, CERN

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the ATLAS and CMS Radiation Simulation Working Groups for providing the initial FLUKA geometry description of ATLAS and CMS, respectively. The authors would also like to thank Nabil Menaa and his colleagues from the Radiation Protection Analytic Laboratory for the gamma spectrometry analysis of the samples.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).