Neutron shielding and activation of the MASTU device and surrounds

Abstract A significant functional upgrade is planned for the Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak (MAST) device, located at Culham in the UK, including the implementation of a notably greater neutral beam injection power. This upgrade will cause the emission of a substantially increased intensity of neutron radiation for a substantially increased amount of time upon operation of the device. Existing shielding and activation precautions are shown to prove insufficient in some regards, and recommendations for improvements are made, including the following areas: shielding doors to MAST shielded facility enclosure (known as “the blockhouse”); north access tunnel; blockhouse roof; west cabling duct. In addition, some specific neutronic dose rate questions are addressed and answered; those discussed here relate to shielding penetrations and dose rate reflected from the air above the device (“skyshine”). It is shown that the alterations to shielding and area access reduce the dose rate in unrestricted areas from greater than 100 μSv/h to less than 2 μSv/h averaged over the working day. The tools used for this analysis are the MCNP (Monte Carlo N-particle) code, used to calculate the three-dimensional spatial distribution of neutron and photon dose rates in and around the device and its shields, and the nuclear inventory code FISPACT, run under the umbrella code MCR2S, used to calculate the time-dependent shutdown dose rate in the region of the device at several decay times.