Shielding designs for pressurized water reactors in France

The efforts made by Electricite de France to reduce exposure from the two-component neutron-gamma radiation fields inside the pressurized water reactor (PWR) building are described. Most of the attention had been focused on the problem of neutron exposure relative to the problem of achieving a highly efficient confinement within the reactor cavity and the state of the art of personnel neutron dosimetry. A description of the general neutron calculation scheme that links the characteristics of the neutron fields escaping from the reactor vessel to the dose equivalent rate cartographies inside the reactor building is provided