Shielding Design Challenge
A team of students will design a brick enclosure to create a radiation free environment for a detector searching for one of the rarest forms of radioactive decay--neutrinoless double-beta decay.
Curriculum module media
The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR (MJD), which is being housed 4,850 feet underground in the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), is looking for one of the rarest forms of radioactive decay- neutrinoless double-beta decay. Its detection could help explain why matter—in other words, us and everything else in the universe—exists.
To work properly, MJD requires a radiation free environment. Researchers are building the detector underground to eliminate the interference from cosmic rays. However, there is also radiation in the surrounding rock, equipment, specks of dust, and people.
The challenge is to design, build, and test a shielding device that effectively protects this sensitive detector while adhering to strict constraints.