Design of Radiation Shielding for Terawatt-level High-power Laser Facility.

Abstract

Abstract: A wide range of particle species, including neutrons, electrons, and photons, will be generated in a terawatt-level (TW) high-power laser facility, which poses considerable challenges for the development of effective radiation shielding solutions. The safety of both facility personnel and the public requires specified design considerations for these shielding systems. The Monte-Carlo code JMCT was employed to simulate and design the shielding structure for the TW facility. We calculated the radiation dose distribution throughout the entire facility for both single-shot and multi-shot operational modes. Our findings indicate that the strategic use of locally thickened shielding walls and mobile shielding measures can effectively mitigate radiation risks in TW-level laser facilities, ensuring that radiation doses within the personnel working area remain within regulatory limits. The results demonstrate that with these shielding strategies in place, the occupational exposure dose in the control room and the clean room can be confined to below 3 mSv y-1, while the public dose remains below 0.1 mSv y-1, considering an experimental frequency of 5 × 106 shots per year for overdense plasma experiments and 1 × 104 shots per year for underdense plasma experiments. The radiation shielding design method and results presented in this paper can serve as a reference for similar devices.