Modelling Tritium Production and Release at High-Energy Proton Accelerators

TL;DR

This paper models and compares tritium production in high-energy proton accelerators using Monte Carlo simulations and diffusion models, aiming to optimize materials and ensure regulatory compliance.

Contribution

It introduces a simple modeling framework and intercomparison of three Monte Carlo codes for tritium production estimation in accelerator facilities.

Findings

Monte Carlo codes produce comparable tritium estimates.

The diffusion model helps predict tritium release from materials.

Results guide material selection to minimize tritium production.

Abstract

Tritium is a well-known byproduct of particle accelerator operations. To keep levels of tritium below regulatory limits, tritium production is actively monitored and managed at Fermilab. We plan to study tritium production in the targets, beamline components, and shielding elements of the Fermilab facilities such as NuMI, BNB, and MI-65. To facilitate the analysis, we construct a simple model and use three Monte Carlo radiation codes, FLUKA, MARS, and PHITS, to estimate the amount of tritium produced in these facilities. The analysis could also serve as an intercomparison between these code results related to tritium production. To assess the actual amounts of tritium that would be released from various materials, we employ a semi-empirical diffusion model. The results of this analysis are compared to experimental data whenever possible. This approach also helps to optimize proposed target materials with respect to the tritium production and release.