Potential Hazards from Neutrino Radiation at Muon Colliders

TL;DR

High energy muon colliders generate significant neutrino radiation that could pose off-site health risks, requiring careful design and site planning to mitigate this hazard.

Contribution

This paper provides a general analysis and order-of-magnitude estimates of neutrino radiation hazards from TeV-scale muon colliders, highlighting the need for mitigation strategies.

Findings

Neutrino radiation from muon colliders can be a serious off-site hazard.

Order-of-magnitude calculations estimate the potential radiation dose.

Design and site selection can reduce the hazard.

Abstract

High energy muon colliders, such as the TeV-scale conceptual designs now being considered, are found to produce enough high energy neutrinos to constitute a potentially serious off-site radiation hazard in the neighbourhood of the accelerator site. A general characterization of this radiation hazard is given, followed by an order-of-magnitude calculation for the off-site annual radiation dose and a discussion of accelerator design and site selection strategies to minimize the radiation hazard.