Description:

Working together in Europe

One of our most exciting projects has been the design, optimisation and fabrication of the radiation shielding bunker for the neutron particle accelerator in Sweden. The project site is LUND, but Debrecen was also in the running as a possible European site for a long time during the project preparation. The total construction cost of the project was around € 1.843.000.000, making it the most expensive project of this type in Europe to date. The costs have been covered by a joint effort from Member States.

Concept

We agreed on the final technological requirements on site and designed the radiation protection elements according to strict boundary conditions. The particle accelerator of the research centre is a straight line with a target at the end, from which the neutron particles needed for the various research areas are propagated in all directions. The radially oriented test sites around the target are rearranged from time to time and according to the specific research task. These rebuilds necessitated the construction of the beam shielding bunker as a building block, so that even a modification of a test site required the bunker to be locally dismantled. All this was of course done in such a way that the concrete elements, placed on top of each other and next to each other, would always comply with radiation protection requirements.

Heavy concrete elements

The concrete elements are made of reinforced concrete with magnetite aggregate and a volume weight of 3.500kg/m3. Each edge of the uniquely shaped concrete elements had to be protected with angle steel to preserve their strength during reloading. In total, more than 300 different elements were used to construct the bunker walls and the end slab. The concrete elements were manufactured in Hungary and transported to the construction site by rail. The concrete formula was prepared by BME experts. Special formwork and concrete technology were required to produce the elements.