• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.449-455
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• 2022

The rapid rise in the application of novel treatment techniques, such as intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), motivated us to survey the status of Korea's radiation safety management and the shielding designs of facilities employing medical linear accelerators (LINACs). To this end, a questionnaire was used to collect information on LINAC facilities and treatments, workload, shielding design, shielding management, and path of obtaining shielding information. Out of 100 domestic institutions, 52 responded to the survey. Approximately 70% of the institutions utilized IMRT for more than 60% of their cases, and an IMRT factor of 5 was adopted by 75% of these institutions. Over 80% of the institutions accounted for the applied time-averaged dose rate per week and instantaneous dose equivalent rates in their shielding designs. Approximately 45% of the institutions obtained important shielding information via a radiation shielding design company and the NCRP-151 report. Overall, most facilities were shown to follow the standards recommended by the relevant international agencies. However, the requirement to establish standardized shielding design information and clarify ambiguous paths for information acquisition was also highlighted. Therefore, the study's results can be used as a foundation for establishing a safety control system and for creating adequate shielding designs.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.65-69
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• 2018

The objective of this study was to conduct a radiation shielding analysis for the facility equipped with radiation generator. The analysis was carried out in two aspects. First, from the aspect of the effect caused by primary and leakage radiation. Second, effect of scattered radiation was evaluated by applying a simple calculation method based on a scattering rate concept since effect of scattered radiation is significantly important at maze entrance of the radiation facility. The calculated results obtained using the simple method were compared to the results calculated using Geant4 code and the measured values. The results calculated by the suggested method indicate that slight error exists in a radiation shielding analysis done at the maze entrance comparing to other two results, while the results evaluated at the outside of the maze entrance door are relatively consistent with other values.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.87-94
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• 2021

While the shielding substances of radiation shields in medical institutions are beginning to be replaced by environmentally friendly materials, radiation protection according to the shielding properties of environmentally friendly substances is becoming an important factor rather than the existing lead shielding properties. Tungsten and barium sulfate are representative shielding materials similar to lead, and are made in sheets or fiber form with eco-friendly materials. Ytterbium is an impermeable material used as a fluorine compound in the dental radiation field. This study aims to evaluate the shielding performance in the x-ray shielding area by comparing the shielding properties of ytterbium by energy band and that of existing eco-friendly materials. When three types of shielding sheets were fabricated and tested under the same process conditions, the shielding performance of the medical radiation area was about 5 % difference from tungsten. Furthermore, shielding performance was superior to barium sulfate. In the cross-sectional structure of the shielding sheet, there was a disadvantage that the arrangement of particles was not uniform. Ytterbium oxide showed sufficient potential as a medical radiation shielding material, and it is thought that it can improve the shielding performance by controlling the particle arrangement structure and particle size.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.1642-1651
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• 2021

In this study, isophtalic neopentyl glycol polyester (NPG-PES) based composites with different loading ratios of pure tungsten metal (W), tungsten (VI) oxide (WO₃), tungsten boron (WB) and tungsten carbide (WC) composites were prepared as alternative shielding materials for ionizing electromagnetic radiation (IEMR) shielding. Structural characterizations of the composites were done. Gamma spectrometric analysis of composites for 80-2000 keV energy range was performed and their usability as IEMR shielding was discussed. As a result, the produced composites showed a shielding performance of 60-100% of the lead (the most widely used IEMR shielding material) depending on the reinforcement material, reinforcement loading rate and experimental conditions. Thus, it was reported that produced composites could be an alternative to lead shieldings that have several disadvantages as toxic properties, difficulty of processing and inelasticity.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.103-109
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• 2015

In this study, the authors attempted to produce a medical radiation shielding fiber that can be produced at a nanosize scale and that is, unlike lead, harmless to the human body. The performance of the proposed medical radiation shielding fiber was then evaluated. First, diamagnetic bismuth oxide, an element which, among elements that have a high atomic number and density, is harmless to the human body, was selected as the shielding material. Next, 10-100 nm sized nanoparticles in powder form were prepared by ball milling the bismuth oxide ($Bi_2O_3$), the average particle size of which is $1-500{\mu}m$, for approximately 10 minutes. The manufactured bismuth oxide was formed into a colloidal solution, and the radiation shielding fabric was fabricated by curing after coating the solution on one side or both sides of the fabric. The thicknesses of the shielding sheets prepared with bismuth oxide were 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, and 1.0 mm. An experimental method was used to measure the absorbed dose and irradiation dose by using the lead equivalent test method of X-ray protection goods presented by Korean Industrial Standards; the resultant shielding rate was then calculated. From the results of this study, the X-ray shielding effect of the shielding sheet with 0.1 mm thickness was about 55.37% against 50 keV X-ray, and the X-ray shielding effect in the case of 1.0 mm thickness showed shielding characteristics of about 99.36% against 50 keV X-ray. In conclusion, it is considered that nanosized-bismuth radiation shielding fiber developed in this research will contribute to reducing the effects of primary X-ray and secondary X-ray such as when using a scattering beam at a low level exposure.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.1210-1217
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• 2023

The assessment of radiation fields in the lithium loop pipes and dump tank during the operation were performed for International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility - DEMO-Oriented NEutron Source (IFMIF-DONES) in order to obtain the radiation dose-rate maps in the component surroundings. Variance reduction techniques such as weight window mesh (produced with the ADVANTG code) were applied to bring the statistical uncertainty down to a reasonable level. The biological dose was given in the study, and potential shielding optimization is suggested and more thoroughly evaluated. The MCNP Monte Carlo was used to simulate a gamma particle transport for radiation shielding purposes for the current Li Systems' design. In addition, the shielding efficiency was identified for the Impurity Control System components and the dump tank. The analysis reported in this paper takes into account the radiation decay source from and activated corrosion products (ACPs), which is created by d-Li interaction. As a consequence, the radiation (resulting from ACPs and Be-7) shielding calculations have been carried out for safety considerations.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.191-199
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• 2021

The purpose of this research is to analyze the radiation shielding effect of soft magnetic material to confirm the applicability to the military facilities. The soft magnetic material is known to be effective in shielding EMP. If this material is also effective in radiation shielding, it is expected that it has a lot of applicability in military protection. In particular, this material contains boron, so it will be effective in shielding neutrons. In this research, experiments were conducted using Cs-137 and Co-60 sources to check the gamma ray shielding effect. In addition, the Monte Carlo N-Particle(MCNP) modeling was applied to evaluate the gamma ray and neutron shielding effect of a military command tent. As a result, as the soft magnetic thickness increased, the shielding performance improved according the linear attenuation law of gamma ray and neutron. Therefore, this research verified that the application of soft magnetic material for military purposes in radiation shielding would be effective.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.12
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• pp.4671-4677
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• 2023

For the first time Pb, Ni, and Cu nanocomposites were synthesized by versatile solution combustion synthesis using Aloevera extract as a reducing agent, to study the potential applications in X-ray/gamma, neutron, and Bremsstrahlung shielding. The synthesized Lead-Nickel-Copper (LNC) nanocomposites were characterized by PXRD, SEM, UV-VIS, and FTIR for the confirmation of successful synthesis. PXRD analysis confirmed the formation of multiphase LNC NCs and the Scherrer equation and the W-H plot gave the average crystal sizes of 19 nm and 17 nm. Surface morphology using SEM and EDX confirmed the presence of LNC NCs. Strong absorption peaks were analyzed by UV visible spectroscopy and the direct energy gap is found to be 3.083 eV. Functional groups present in the LNC NCs were analyzed by FTIR spectroscopy. X-ray/gamma radiation shielding properties were measured using NaI(Tl) detector coupled with MCA. It is found to be very close to Pb. Neutron shielding parameters were compared with traditional shielding materials and found LNC NCs are better than lead and concrete. Secondary radiation shielding known as Bremsstrahlung shielding characteristics also studied and found that LNC NCs are best in secondary radiation shielding. Hence LNC NCs find shielding applications in ionizing radiation such as X-ray/gamma and neutron radiation.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.478-489
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• 2012

Each year, about four million tons of steel slag, a by-product produced during the manufacture of steel by refining pig iron in the converter furnace, is generated. It is difficult to recycle this steel slag as aggregate for concrete because the reaction with water and free-CaO in steel slag results in a volume expansion that leads to cracking. However, the steel slag used in this study is atomized using an air-jet method, which rapidly changes the melting substance at high temperature into a solid at a room temperature and prevents free-CaO from being generated in steel slag. This rapidly-cooled steel slag has a spherical shape and is even heavier than natural aggregate, making it suitable for the aggregate of radiation shielding concrete. This study deals with the radiation shielding property of concrete that uses the rapidly-cooled steel slag from the oxidizing process in the converter furnace as fine aggregate. It was shown that the radiation shielding performance of concrete mixed with rapidly-cooled steel slag is even more superior than that of ordinary concrete.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.225-230
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• 2006

With the advent of inexpensive computing power over the past two decades, applications of Monte Carlo radiation transport techniques have proliferated dramatically. At Los Alamos, the Monte Carlo codes MCNP5 and MCNPX are used routinely on personal computer platforms for radiation shielding analysis and dosimetry calculations. These codes feature a rich palette of variance reduction (VR) techniques. The motivation of VR is to exchange user efficiency for computational efficiency. It has been said that a few hours of user time often reduces computational time by several orders of magnitude. Unfortunately, user time can stretch into the many hours as most VR techniques require significant user experience and intervention for proper optimization. It is the purpose of this paper to outline VR strategies, tested in practice, optimized for several common radiation shielding tasks, with the hope of reducing user setup time for similar problems. A strategy is defined in this context to mean a collection of MCNP radiation transport physics options and VR techniques that work synergistically to optimize a particular shielding task. Examples are offered in the areas of source definition, skyshine, streaming, and transmission.