A Novel Ultra-light Structure for Radiation Shielding

Discuss the technical details of an "open source" community-driven design of a polywell reactor.

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DeltaV
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Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2009 5:05 am

A Novel Ultra-light Structure for Radiation Shielding

Post by DeltaV »

Metal foam (open-cell) filled with borated water for use as a lightweight radiation shield:

A Novel Ultra-light Structure for Radiation Shielding
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/availabl ... ed/etd.pdf

Aluminum is used here (probably for experiment cost reasons), but many other metals can also be foamed (e.g., lead plus a little zinc).
I'd guess a borated polymer could be used for the filler, if it had a viscosity when melted that was low enough to infiltrate the cells.

I wonder if boron or tungsten could be foamed...
Foamed gadolinium (highest neutron cross section) would be a tad pricey, but maybe in a compound to fill the cells?

[Edit] Thesis PDF link is dead. Title page:
A Novel Ultra-light Structure for Radiation Shielding
by Siqi Xu

A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
Degree of Master of Science Nuclear Engineering

Raleigh, North Carolina 2008

APPROVED BY:
Man-Sung Yim
Mohamed A. Bourham
Afsaneh Rabiei

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