Lithium Borohydride (LiBH4): An Innovative Material for Neutron Radiation Shielding

TL;DR

This paper explores lithium borohydride (LiBH4) as a novel neutron radiation shield, demonstrating its superior effectiveness and compactness compared to traditional materials through computational modeling.

Contribution

It introduces LiBH4 as a new neutron shielding material and optimizes its use with boron compounds, achieving significant volume reduction and high neutron attenuation.

Findings

LiBH4 provides greater fast neutron shielding than boron carbide.

The optimized shield reduces volume by 40% while maintaining high neutron and gamma attenuation.

A 30 cm thick shield blocks 95% of neutrons and 92% of gamma radiation.

Abstract

Radiation shielding plays a crucial role in various industries, including nuclear and space exploration. Among the most abundant elements and isotopes found in nature, 10B has one of the highest neutron absorption cross-sections, closely followed by 6Li. It is worth noting that hydrogen, with its light nucleus, serves as an excellent neutron reflector. Surprisingly, the potential of the lithium borohydride molecule (LiBH4), which consists exclusively of these elements, as a shield against neutron radiation has not yet been explored. This study investigates various materials that can potentially be used as shields. First, we assessed traditional shields and previous optimizations for shielding. The findings showed that concrete containing 10% B4C yielded the best results. High-performance concrete (HPC) replaced regular concrete. By gradually incorporating lithium borohydride into the shield, along with the appropriate level of boron carbide, further optimization was achieved. Calculations were performed using the MCNPX 2.7E code. The introduction of the new shield resulted in a significant 40% reduction in volume compared with the previous sample. The study findings showed that a 30 cm thick shield effectively blocked 95% of the total neutrons and 92% of the total gamma radiation. Additionally, it was noted that the shielding effects of lithium borohydride against fast neutrons are greater than those of boron carbide. Various parameters and data of the designed shield were calculated and compared with those of the previous sample.