Deep Penetration of Radiation by the Method of Invariant Imbedding

Abstract
The method of invariant imbedding has been applied to neutron shielding problems in plane geometry with realistic energy and angle-dependent cross sections. The method seems to offer advantages over competing methods when the shield is heterogeneous and very thick or when the shield is composed of a very large number of different regions. Reflection and transmission equations are derived by the method of invariant imbedding and their numerical solution discussed. A simple exponential approximation is shown to work well for the solution of these equations. Results for several problems including a thick homogenous water shield and a thinner heterogeneous iron/polyethylene/iron shield are compared with results obtained by other methods.