Activation assessment of the soil around the ESS accelerator tunnel

TL;DR

This paper assesses soil activation around the ESS accelerator tunnel using detailed simulations of radionuclide production, decay, and spatial distribution, validated by comparison with experimental foil measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive activation assessment methodology combining MARS15, DeTra, and ENDF/B-VII data, tailored for the ESS accelerator environment.

Findings

Spatial activity distributions are provided for the soil around the tunnel.

Calculated activation levels are validated against measured foil data.

The study offers detailed radionuclide production profiles over the facility's lifetime.

Abstract

Activation of the soil surrounding the ESS accelerator tunnel calculated by the MARS15 code is presented. A detailed composition of the soil, that comprises about 30 different chemical elements, is considered. Spatial distributions of the produced activity are provided in both transverse and longitudinal direction. A realistic irradiation profile for the entire planned lifetime of the facility is used. The nuclear transmutation and decay of the produced radionuclides is calculated with the DeTra code which is a built-in tool for the MARS15 code. Radionuclide production by low-energy neutrons is calculated using the ENDF/B-VII evaluated nuclear data library. In order to estimate quality of this activation assessment, a comparison between calculated and measured activation of various foils in a similar radiation environment is presented.