Analysis of tritium production in the vicinity of Linac and LEB tunnels at the Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory

Monte Carlo calculations were performed to estimate the tritium production in groundwater around the Linear Accelerator (Linac) and the Low Energy Booster (LEB) tunnels at the Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory (SSCL). The calculations were performed using the new version of the Los Alamos High Energy Transport (LAHET) code system (SUPERHET). Most of the tritium activity was found to occur in a zone extending 2 m from the tunnel wall. The calculated tritium production rate was used to derive the. maximum allowable beam losses that would result in an average groundwater concentration in the activation zone of 20 pCi/cm3, the federal maximum contaminant level (MCL) for tritium in drinking water. The maximum allowable beam losses were found to be about 4% and 2% of the maximum operating be.-un for the Linac at 1 GeV and the LEB at 11 GeV, resnectively. These percentages are well in excess of typical operational losses at existing highenergy accelerators. The results are in good agreement with previously reported calculations. Tritium saturation activity in water pipes resultina, from the derived maximum allowable beam loss was found to be 355 pCi/cm3 in the Linac operating at 600 MeV and 363 pCi/cm3 in the LEB operating at 11 GeV. Accidental tritium releases from water pipes were found to cause an inhalation dose rate of less than 0.013 (Linac at 600 MeV) and 0.009 mrem/hr (LEB at 11 Gev) in the tunnels. These dose rates are well within the laboratory's design limit of 0.1 mrem/hr for controlled areas. Accidental beam losses were found to cause activation in excess of the MCL only after an irradiation time of more than 557 hours in the Linac at 600 MeV and 69 hours in the LEB at 11 GeV. A full-beam accident lasting more than one hour is considered unlikely