Reply To: Repowering the electric utility industry

[jamesr]

As far as I know you would always need neutron shielding. The small proportion of side reactions is still enough to be concerned about, while the device is operating. In nuclear safety the principle is of “As Low as Reasonably Achievable” (ALARA) or in the UK its known as “As Low as Reasonably Practicable” (ALARP). Basically means if there is something you can do to lower the dosage and risk you should do it. Any regulator would insist on it.

So the DPF device (outside the onion but inside as much else as possible) would be surrounded by a water blanket doped with boron-10, or alternatively plastic shielding tiles like Boratron. The hydrogen in the water/plastic slows down the neutrons to a low enough speed that they can be absorbed by the B-10. This absorption releases gamma rays, so outside the neutron shield you need a further small amount of lead or high density concrete gamma shield.