Shielding Studies for the Confinement Physics Research Facility

Abstract

A radiation shielding analysis was performed on the Confinement Physics Research Facility (CPRF) under construction at Los Alamos National Laboratory. A reversed-field pinch device, the ZTH, was examined in an effort to obtain an estimate of the spatial distribution of the dose seen by both personnel and electronic components. In the Monte Carlo transport analysis, the MCNP code was used to estimate the neutron and gamma-ray doses and differential flux (in energy) spectra at ten locations within the CPRF. The complex geometry of the ZTH dictated that the problem be solved in a two-step process: First, a cylindrical surface source enclosing the ZTH was computed, and then this source was used as the radiation source for the CPRF building calculations. Using a source strength of 10¹⁵ neutrons, identical calculations were performed for both deuterium-deuterium and deuterium-tritium fusion plasmas.