• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.9
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• pp.3470-3477
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• 2022

Soils are porous materials with high shielding capability to attenuate gamma and X-rays. The disposal of radionuclides throughout the soil profile can expose the living organisms to ionizing radiation. Thus, studies aiming to analyze the shielding properties of the soils are of particular interest for radiation shielding. Investigations on evaluating the shielding capabilities of highly weathered soils are still scarce, meaning that additional research is necessary to check their efficiency to attenuate radiation. In this study, the radiation shielding properties of contrasting soils were evaluated. The radiation interaction parameters assessed were attenuation coefficients, mean free path, and half- and tenth-value layers. At low photon energies, the photoelectric absorption contribution to the attenuation coefficient predominated, while at intermediate and high photon energies, the incoherent scattering and pair production were the dominant effects. Soils with the highest densities presented the best shielding properties, regardless of their chemical compositions. Increases in the attenuation coefficient and decreases in shielding parameters of the soils were associated with increases in clay, Fe₂O₃, Al₂O₃, and TiO₂ amounts. In addition, this paper provides a comprehensive description of the shielding properties of weathered soils showing the importance of their granulometric fractions and oxides to the attenuation of the radiation.

• Journal of Ceramic Processing Research
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.363-371
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• 2019

In this study, physical properties of normal concrete, magnetite concrete, EAF concrete, and EAF concrete with added iron powder were evaluated and a feasibility of radiation shielding is also evaluated through irradiation tests against X-rays and gamma-rays. While the unit weight of EAF concrete (3.21 t/㎥) appeared lower than that of magnetite concrete (3.50 t/㎥), the results in compressive strength of EAF concrete were greater than those in magnetite and normal concrete. While the radiation transmission rate of normal concrete reaches 26.0% in the X-ray irradiation test, only 6.0% and 9.0% of transmission rate were observed in magnetite concrete and linear relationship with unit volume weight and radiation shielding. In the gamma-ray irradiation test, the performance of EAF and magnetite concretes appeared to be similar. Through the results on the excellent physical properties and radiation shielding performance a potential applicability of EAF concrete to radiation shielding was verified.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.251-257
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• 1998

Concrete is considered to be one of the excellent and versatile shielding material and is widely used for the radiation shielding materials. This paper aims to study mechanical properties of concrete by using normal cement, natural and heavyweight aggregate and their radiation shielding effects through radiation transmission tests.

• 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 Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.184-196
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• 2023

Background: Radiation protection is crucial in various fields due to the harmful effects of radiation. Shielding is used to reduce radiation exposure, but gamma radiation poses challenges due to its high energy and penetration capabilities. Materials and Methods: This work investigates the radiation shielding properties of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) samples containing different weight fraction of tungsten carbide (WC), tungsten trioxide (WO₃), and tungsten disulfide (WS₂). Parameters such as the mass attenuation coefficient (MAC), half-value layer (HVL), mean free path (MFP), effective atomic number (Z_eff), and macroscopic effective removal cross-section for fast neutrons (Σ_R) were calculated using the Phy-X/PSD software. EpiXS simulations were conducted for MAC validation. Results and Discussion: Increasing the weight fraction of the additives resulted in higher MAC values, indicating improved radiation shielding. PVDF-xWC showed the highest percentage increase in MAC values. MFP results indicated that PVDF-0.20WC has the lowest values, suggesting superior shielding properties compared to PVDF-0.20WO₃ and PVDF-0.20WS₂. PVDF-0.20WC also exhibited the highest Z_eff values, while PVDF-0.20WS₂ showed a slightly higher increase in Z_eff at energies of 0.662 and 1.333 MeV. PVDF-0.20WC has demonstrated the highest Σ_R value, indicating effective shielding against fast neutrons, while PVDF-0.20WS₂ had the lowest Σ_R value. The Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport version 5 (MCNP5) simulations showed that PVDF-xWC attenuates gamma radiation more than pure PVDF, significantly decreasing the dose equivalent rate. Conclusion: Overall, this research provides insights into the radiation shielding properties of PVDF mixtures, with PVDF-xWC showing the most promising results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.9
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• pp.3058-3067
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• 2021

Sodium zinc borate glasses doped with dysprosium and modified with different concentrations of barium oxide (0-50 mol %) were fabricated using the melting quenching technique. The structural properties of the prepared glass systems were characterized using XRD and FTIR methods. The absorption spectra of the prepared glasses were measured to determine their energy gap and their related optical properties. The density of the glasses and other physical parameters were also reported. Additionally, with the help of Photon Shielding and Dosimetry (PSD) software, we investigated the radiation shielding parameters of the prepared glass systems at different energy values. It was found that an increase in the density of the glasses by increasing the concentration of BaO significantly improved the gamma ray shielding ability of the samples. For practical results, a compatible irradiation set up was designed to check the shielding capability of the obtained glasses using a gamma ray source at 662 keV. The experimentally obtained results strongly agreed with the data obtained by PDS software at the same energy. These results demonstrated that the investigated glass system is a good candidate for several radiation shielding applications when comparing it with other commercial shielding glasses and concretes.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.20-28
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• 2018

Background: Heat energy produced in nuclear reactors and nuclear fuel cycle facilities interactions modifies the physical properties of the shielding materials containing water content. Therefore, in the present paper, effect of the heat on shielding effectiveness of the concretes is investigated for gamma and neutron. The mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic numbers, fast neutron removal cross-section and exposure buildup factors. Materials and Methods: The mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic numbers, fast neutron removal cross-section and exposure buildup factors of ordinary and heavy concretes were investigated using NIST data of XCOM program and Geometric Progression method. Results and Discussion: The improvement in shielding effectiveness for photon and reduction in fast neutron for ordinary concrete was observed. The change in the neutron shielding effectiveness was insignificant. Conclusion: The present investigation on interaction of gamma and neutron radiation would be very useful for assessment of shielding efficiency of the concrete used in high temperature applications such as reactors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.1519-1526
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• 2023

For the first time Aluminium-BariumeZinc oxide nanocomposite (ZABONC) was synthesized by solution combustion method where calcination was carried out at low temperatures (600℃) to study the electromagnetic (EM) (X/γ) radiation shielding properties. Further for characterization purpose standard techniques like PXRD, SEM, UV-VISIBLE, FTIR were used to find phase purity, functional groups, surface morphology, and to do structural analysis and energy band gap determination. The PXRD pattern shows (hkl) planes corresponding to spinel cubic phase of ZnAl₂O4, cubic Ba(NO₃)₂, α and γ phase of Al₂O₃ which clearly confirms the formation of complex nano composite. From SEM histogram mean size of nano particles was calculated and is in the order of 17 nm. Wood and Tauc's relation direct energy band gap calculation gives energy gap of 2.9 eV. In addition, EM (X/γ) shielding properties were measured and compared with the theoretical ones using standard procedures (NaI (Tl) detector and multi channel analyzer MCA). For energy above 356 keV the measured shielding parameters agree well with the theory, while below this value slight deviation is observed, due to the influence of atomic/crystallite size of the ZABONC. Hence synthesized ZABONC can be used as a shielding material in EM (X/γ) radiation shielding.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.1885-1891
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• 2023

The present work aims to fabricate Na_1+xZr₂Si_xP_3-xO₁₂ compound at various calcination temperatures based on the zircon mineral. The fabricated compound was calcinated at 250, 500, and 1000℃. The effect of calcination temperature on the structure, crystal phase, and radiation shielding properties was studied for the fabricated compound. The X-ray diffraction diffractometer demonstrates that, the monoclinic crystal phase appeared at a calcination temperature of 250℃ and 500℃ is totally transformed to a high-symmetry hexagonal crystal phase under a calcination temperature of 1000℃. The radiation shielding capacity was also qualified for the fabricated compounds using the Monte Carlo N-Particle transport code in the g-photons energy interval between 15keV and 122keV. The impacts of calcination temperature on the g-ray shielding behavior were clarified in the present study, where the linear attenuation coefficient was enhanced by 218% at energy of 122keV, when the calcination temperature increased from 250 to 1000℃, respectively.