I have posted questions about detecting Au198 decay in another post. But in a reply to my other post there was some concern expressed that I'd need shielding from the neutrons I'm releasing. That is what this post is about.
I have 40 polyethylene moderating blocks surrounding the two neutron sources and the SI19N tube. Should I add some lead sheet on the outside of that? I don't have much lead sheet (I think it's 1/16" thick and about 3 sq ft) and I was thinking of putting it on the side of the poly blocks between me and the neutron sources.
Does that sound like a viable way to mitigate my neutron exposure when I am in my hobby room? I usually bake my activation targets about 4 days at a time. I don't store the alpha sources and the Beryllium together.
These are the polyethylene blocks that I bought:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/324151416075
Some pictures of my setup about which I am asking advice:







My precious GOLD BAR (2 gm) -- Will the plastic wrapper affect the activation in any way?

The neutron detection/activation set up. I place the gold bar on top of the sources and cover the whole thing three blocks deep:

The Chinese Geiger Counter board with piggyback ESP32 Wemos Lolin32 Arduino that I programmed:
