• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.4708-4714
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• 2022

The novelty in the present search, the Soda-Lime-Silica (SLS) glass waste to prepare free lead glass shielding was used in order to limit the accumulation of glass waste, which requires extensive time to decompose. This also saves on the consumption of pure SiO₂, which is a finite resource. Furthermore, the combining of BaO with Bi₂O₃ into a glass network leads to increased optical properties and improved attenuation. The UV-Visible Spectrophotometer was used to investigate the optical properties and the radiation shielding properties were reported for current glass samples utilizing the PhysX/PDS online software. The optical property results indicate that when BaO content increases in glass structure, the Urbach energy ΔE, and refractive index n increases while the energy optical band gap E_opt decreases. The result of the metallisation criteria (M) revealed that the present glass samples are nonmetallic (insulators). Furthermore, the radiation shielding parameter findings suggest that when BaO was increased in the glass structure, the linear attenuation coefficient and effective atomic number (Z_eff) rose. But the half-value layer HVL declined as the BaO concentration grew. According to the research, the glass samples are non-toxic, transparent to visible light, and efficient radiation shielding materials. The Ba5 sample is considered the best among all the samples due to its higher attenuation value and lower HVL and MFP values, which make it a suitable candidate as transparent glass shield shielding.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.2025-2037
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• 2021

The influence of lead cations on natural quartz (QZ) from Egypt as a glass shielding material for the composition with nominal formula (10Na₂O - (90 - x) QZ - xPbO (where x = 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 mol %)) was examined. The studied samples are synthesized via the melt quenching method at 1050 ℃. The X-ray diffraction XRD patterns were confirmed the glass nature for studied samples. Moreover, the optical properties, and the transparency for all compositions were examined by UV-Vis spectroscopy. Also, the major elemental composition of the natural quartz were estimated via the X-ray fluorescence (XRF) technique. Further, the density and molar volume were determined. Furthermore, the nuclear shielding parameters such as, mass attenuation coefficient, effective atomic number, electronic density, the total atomic, and electronic cross sections as well as the mean free path, and the half value layer with different gamma ray energies (81 keV-1407 keV) were calculated. Besides, the results showed that the shielding behavior towards the gamma ray radiation for all glass samples was increased as the increment in PbO concentration in the glass system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.12
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• pp.4106-4113
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• 2021

Rare earth doped barium tellurite glasses were synthesised and explored for their radiation shielding applications. All the samples showed good thermal stability with values varying between 101 ℃ and 135 ℃ based on dopants. Structural properties showed the dominance of matrix elements compared to rare earth dopants in forming the bridging and non-bridging atoms in the network. Bandgap values varied between 3.30 and 4.05 eV which was found to be monotonic with respective rare earth dopants indicating their modification effect in the network. Various radiation shielding parameters like linear attenuation coefficient, mean free path and half value layer were calculated and each showed the effect of doping. For all samples, LAC values decreased with increase in energy and is attributed to photoelectric mechanism. Thulium doped glasses showed the highest value of 1.18 cm^-1 at 0.245 MeV for 2 mol.% doping, which decreased in the order of erbium, holmium and the base barium tellurite glass, while half value layer and mean free paths showed an opposite trend with least value for 2 mol.% thulium indicating that thulium doped samples are better attenuators compared to undoped and other rare earth doped samples. Studies indicate an increased level of thulium doping in barium tellurite glasses can lead to efficient shielding materials for high energy radiation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.1061-1070
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• 2023

Over the last few years, lead-free inorganic metal perovskites have gained impressive ground in empowering satellites in space exploration owing to their material stability and performance evolution under extreme space environments. The present work has examined the versatility of eight such perovskites as space radiation shielding materials by computing their photon, charged particles and neutron interaction parameters. Photon interaction parameters were calculated for a wide energy range using PAGEX software. The ranges of heavy charged particles (H, He, C, N, O, Ne, Mg, Si and Fe ions) in these perovskites were estimated using SRIM software in the energy range 1 keV-10 GeV, and that of electrons was computed using ESTAR NIST software in the energy range 0.01 MeV-1 GeV. Further, the macroscopic fast neutron removal cross-sections were also calculated to estimate the neutron shielding efficiencies. The examined shielding parameters of the perovskites varied depending on the radiation type and energy. Among the selected perovskites, Cs₂TiI₆ and Ba₂AgIO₆ displayed superior photon attenuation properties. A 3.5 cm thick Ba₂AgIO₆-based shield could reduce the incident radiation intensity to half its initial value, a thickness even lesser than that of Pb-glass. Besides, CsSnBr₃ and La_0.8Ca_0.2Ni_0.5Ti_0.5O₃ displayed the highest and lowest range values, respectively, for all heavy charged particles. Ba₂AgIO₆ showed electron stopping power (on par with Kovar) better than that of other examined materials. Interestingly, La_0.8Ca_0.2Ni_0.5Ti_0.5O₃ demonstrated neutron removal cross-section values greater than that of standard neutron shielding materials - aluminium and polyethylene. On the whole, the present study not only demonstrates the employment prospects of eco-friendly perovskites for shielding space radiations but also suggests future prospects for research in this direction.