Turgay Korkut1, Fuat Koksal2 and Osman Gencel3 1Faculty of Science and Art, Department of Physics, Ibrahim Cecen University, Agri 2Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Bozok

University, Yozgat

3Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Bartin University, Bartin

Turkey

1. Introduction

Nuclear reactor technology is known as an emerging area of study from past to present. It is an implementation of the nuclear sciences including reactions about atomic nucleus and productions. During the construction of a nuclear reactor, the most important issue is nuclear safety. The term of security can be attributed radiation shielding processes. For nuclear reactors, there are several different materials used to radiation shielding. While determining the most appropriate material to shield, the type and energy of radiation is extremely important.

There are two types of nuclear reactions reveals very large energies. These are the disintegration of atomic nuclei (fission) and merging small atomic nuclei (fusion) reactions. Therefore, nuclear reactors can be divided into two groups according to the type of reaction occurred during as fission reactors and fusion reactors. Currently a nuclear reactor working with fusion reactions is not available. Today, there are the hundreds of nuclear reactors based on the fission reactions. For the realization of nuclear fission, a large fissile atomic nucleus such as 235U can absorb a neutron particle. At the end of nuclear fission event, fission products (two or more light nucleus, kinetic energy, gamma radiation and free neutrons) arise. Fission reactions are controls by using neutron attenuators such as heavy water, cadmium, graphite, beryllium and several hydrocarbons. While designing a reactor shield materials against gamma and neutron radiations should be used.

Vermiculite is a monoclinic-prismatic crystal mineral including Al2O3, H2O, MgO, FeO and SiO2. It is used in heat applications, as soil conditioner, as loose-fill insulation, as absorber package material and lightweight aggregate for plaster etc. Its chemical formula is known as (MgFe, Al)3(Al, Si)4Oio(OH)2 4H2O and physical density of it about 2.5 g. cm-3. Melting point of vermiculite is above 13500C. This mineral can be used as additive building material in terms of mineral properties.

Vermiculite is a component of the phyllosilicate or sheet silicate group of minerals. It has high-level exfoliation property. So if vermiculite is heated, it expands to many times its

original volume. This feature is a striking ability for a mineral. Because it looks like vermicularis, its name is vermiculite. They molecular structure consists of two tetrahedral layers as silica and alumina and an octahedral layer including O, Mg, Fe and hydroxyl molecules. Water located between layers is an important member in the vermiculite. If mineral heats suddenly, inter-layer water transforms to steam and exfoliation feature occurs.

Vermiculite is clean to handle, odorless and mould durable. It has a wide range of uses as thermal insulation, fire durability, liquid absorption capability, low density and usefulness etc… The main uses of minerals are listed as follows;

i. Construction Industry (lightweight concretes, vermiculite-loaded plasters, loosefill insulation)

ii. Animal Feedstuff Industry

iii. Industrial Insulation for High Temperatures (up to 11000C)

iv. Automotive Industry

v. Packaging Materials

vi. Horticulture

In literature, there are several studies about vermiculite and its usage. A comparative study about the effects of grinding and ultrasonic treatment on vermiculite was done. The effect of mechanical treatment and cation type on the clay micro porosity of the Santa Olalla vermiculite untreated and mechanically treated (sonicated and ground) and saturated with different captions was investigated. An experimental study was performed about thermal conductivity of expanded vermiculite based samples. In this paper, measurements were carried out on samples in the temperature range of 300-1100 K. Because of the high heat insulation properties of vermiculite mineral, we frequently encounter studies on thermal properties of it. In another study, researchers produced new materials including vermiculite that can withstand up to 11500C. The cement-vermiculite composition was used to produce new materials to leach 54Mn and 89Sr radionuclide. Researchers have received the best results when using 95% Portland cement and 5% vermiculite composition. The effect on ultrasounds on natural macroscopic vermiculite flakes has been studied and effects of ultrasound treatment on the several parameters (particle sizes, crystal structure, surface area, etc…) were investigated. Finally, micron and submicron-sized vermiculites were prepared. High surface area silica was obtained by selectively leaching vermiculite. In this study, also the characteristics of the porous silica obtained from vermiculite are compared with those from other clay minerals. Studies are performed on the material composition and typical characteristics of micaceous minerals of the vermiculite series in the Tebinbulak deposit. Thermal treatments of nano-layered vermiculite samples were studied up to 9000C. In another thermal effect study was achieved for 15-8000C temperature range vermiculite originated by Tanzania region. Thermal properties of polypropylene-vermiculite composites were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetry (TG) techniques. At the end of this study, new composites with high thermal stability were produced. The effect of sodium ion exchange on the properties of vermiculite was studied by several methodology (scanning electron microscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and thermo mechanical analysis) and sodium exchange lowered the exfoliation onset temperature to below 300 °C. A comparative study about oil affinity of expanded and hydrophobized vermiculite was done. According to the results of this study, the expanded vermiculite had a greater affinity for oil than hydrophobized vermiculite. XRD characteristics of Poland vermiculites were studied and crystal structure of it was determined. A general study about typical properties and some parameters of different vermiculites was performed. In this study, especially heat conduction coefficients were commented and an evaluation was done about vermiculite based building materials. In another study, flyash-based fibre-reinforced hybrid phenolic composites filled with vermiculite were fabricated and characterized for their physical, thermal, mechanical and tribological performance.

Neutron shielding studies have a wide range of literature. For example, colemanite and epoxy resin mixtures have been prepared for neutron shielding applications by Okuno, 2005. Agosteo et al. have investigated double differential neutron distribution and neutron attenuation in concrete using 100-250 MeV proton accelerator. In another study, neutron transmission measurements were studied through pyrolytic graphite crystals by Adib et al. Neutron attenuation properties of zirconium borohydrite and zirconium hydride were determined by Hayashi et al., 2009. Sato et al. designed a new material evaluation method by using a pulsed neutron transmission with pixel type detectors.

In this paper; we investigated usability of vermiculite loaded samples for nuclear reactor shielding processes, because of excellent thermal insulation properties of it. This mineral was doped in cement and new samples including different vermiculite percents were produced. 4.5 MeV neutron dose transmission values were determined. Also 4.5 MeV neutron attenuation lengths were calculated for each sample.