Grant: Subatomic Physics Envelope - Individual

Radiation is identified as one of the most critical health issues in nuclear industry and space exploration. It becomes even more vital with the development of high-intensity accelerators for fundamental research, radiation therapy, compact small modular reactors, and the recent interest in long-duration space missions in low-Earth orbit and beyond. Substantial efforts in studying radiation countermeasures have been invested mainly in radiation monitoring devices and shielding research programs to reduce exposure and its consequences on the health of the nuclear personnel and space crew. For instance, for two decades, aboard the International Space Station, radiation monitoring, using different radiation detectors, has been conducted within the framework of international programs to characterize mixed space radiation fields, to evaluate the ionizing radiation quantities received during space flight, to study the complex radiation fields behind different shielding, and ultimately to contribute to better understanding the space radiation environment. Similarly, for radiation shielding, currently, a radiation shielding material that has high efficacy for simultaneously shielding against different radiation types does not yet exist, simply, because different radiation particles have different mechanisms of interaction and, consequently, if a shielding material works for a specific particle it does not necessarily work for another. Thus, both radiation instruments and shielding material, generally designed for a specific application in a specific radiation field and used in a complex mixed radiation field, such as a space environment, around accelerators, are significantly affected by other particles such as high-energy charged particles in space. Therefore, due to their complexity, mixed radiation fields require a different approach to designing both radiation instrumentation and shielding materials. Attempts in different experiments aboard the International Space Station and simulations, with high-energy charged particles, using a composition of light elements have shown promising results in developing high-efficacy materials for radiation shielding. For radiation detection, our preliminary investigation of some scintillation detectors may open the opportunity to develop specific radiation detection systems for mixed radiation fields. This research program aims to study the fundamental proprieties of newly developed materials as an alternative for radiation shielding and detection in complex mixed fields and provide the basic data to support the terrestrial applications of radiation and space industry. The program focuses on studying the capability of a set of shielding materials and the potential of scintillation sensors to be used for the next generation of radiation instrumentation. It uses an empirical approach that combines an experimental study using different heavy ion beams, and high-energy neutrons along with advanced Simulation codes.