Evaluation of Radiation Shielding Properties of Concrete with Oil Shale Ash and Basalt-Boron Fiber Additives for Spent Nuclear Fuel Casks

Nuclear Engineering and Design 2025
Andrejs Krasņikovs, Andrius Slavickas, Hando Tohver, Maryna Holiuk, Riho Motlep, Volodymyr Gulik

Cement-based concretes are commonly used for managing radioactive waste due to their low cost and acceptable radiation shielding properties. However, the potential of using oil shale ash as an admixture in concrete for the radioactive waste packaging has been left unnoticed. The present work aims to demonstrate the radiation shielding properties of developed concrete mixes with the oil shale ash and basalt-boron fibers for the spent nuclear fuel management at the Ignalina NPP. Concrete composite materials were placed in the CONSTOR RBMK-1500/M2 cask model to estimate radiation shielding properties. OpenMC, MCNP, SCALE and Serpent codes were used for the estimation of radiation shielding properties. It was demonstrated that the cask with developed concrete composite material can meet the safety limit.

Keywords
ConcreteOil shale ashBasalt-boron fibersSpent nuclear fuelRadiation shielding
DOI
10.1016/j.nucengdes.2025.114110
Hyperlink
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0029549325002870?via%3Dihub

Krasņikovs, A., Slavickas, A., Tohver, H., Holiuk, M., Motlep, R., Gulik, V. Evaluation of Radiation Shielding Properties of Concrete with Oil Shale Ash and Basalt-Boron Fiber Additives for Spent Nuclear Fuel Casks. Nuclear Engineering and Design, 2025, Vol. 439, Article number 114110. ISSN 0029-5493. e-ISSN 1872-759X. Pieejams: doi:10.1016/j.nucengdes.2025.114110

Publication language
English (en)