https://doi.org/10.1051/epjn/2019050
Regular Article
New composite material based on heavy concrete reinforced by basalt-boron fiber for radioactive waste management
1
Nuclear facility safety department, Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants, Lysogirska 12, 03142 Kyiv, Ukraine
2
Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, W. Ostwaldi 1, 50411 Tartu, Estonia
3
US Basalt Corp., Richmond, TX 77407, USA
4
Institute for Problems in Materials Science, Krzhizhanovsky 3, 03142 Kyiv, Ukraine
* e-mail: volodymyr.gulik@gmail.com
Received:
15
August
2019
Accepted:
2
September
2019
Published online: 10 December 2019
A new composite material with neutron radiation shielding properties is presented. This fiber reinforced concrete material incorporates basalt-boron fiber, with different concentrations of boron oxide in fiber, and is applicable to nuclear energy and nuclear waste management. The methodology for production of boron oxide (B2O3) infused basalt fiber has been developed. First experimental samples of basalt boron fiber containing 6% of B2O3 and 12% B2O3 have been produced in laboratory conditions. The concrete samples reinforced by two types of basalt-boron fiber with different dosages have been prepared for neutron experiment. The neutron experimental investigations on radiation shielding properties of concrete reinforced by basalt-boron fiber have been performed by means of Pu-Be neutron source. The prepared samples have been tested in the course of several series of tests. It is shown that basalt-boron fibers in concrete improve neutron radiation shielding properties for neutrons with different energies, but it appears to be most effective when it comes to thermal neutrons.
© I. Romanenko et al., published by EDP Sciences, 2019
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
