The MARS15-based FermiCORD code system for calculation of the accelerator-induced residual dose

TL;DR

FermiCORD, a new code system based on MARS15, accurately calculates residual doses from accelerators by simulating radionuclide inventories and gamma emissions, validated against experimental data and other algorithms.

Contribution

The paper introduces FermiCORD, a novel C++ add-on to MARS15, for detailed residual dose calculations at complex accelerator facilities.

Findings

FermiCORD shows good agreement with experimental data from CERN.

The code effectively models residual dose distributions in accelerator environments.

Application to Mu2e target station demonstrates practical utility.

Abstract

The FermiCORD code system, a set of codes based on MARS15 that calculates the accelerator-induced residual doses at experimental facilities of arbitrary configurations, has been developed. FermiCORD is written in C++ as an add-on to Fortran-based MARS15. The FermiCORD algorithm consists of two stages: 1) simulation of residual doses on contact with the surfaces surrounding the studied location and of radionuclide inventories in the structures surrounding those locations using MARS15, and 2) simulation of the emission of the nuclear decay $\gamma$-quanta by the residuals in the activated structures and scoring the prompt doses of these $\gamma$-quanta at arbitrary distances from those structures. The FermiCORD code system has been benchmarked against similar algorithms based on other code systems and against experimental data from the CERF facility at CERN, and FermiCORD showed reasonable agreement with these. The code system has been applied for calculation of the residual dose of the target station for the Mu2e experiment and the results have been compared to approximate dosimetric approaches.