Investigation of radiation shielding properties for some ceramics

Abstract

In this work, the radiation shielding parameters like mass and linear attenuation coefficient, half value layer, tenth value layer, mean free path, effective atomic number, effective electron density, exposure buildup factor and fast neutron removal cross section were examined for the peridot, aluminum nitride, ruby, yttrium oxide, magnesium silicate, and silicon nitride ceramic samples. Furthermore, the dependence of the effective conductivity on the energy was investigated. The experimental studies were carried out in the photon energy range of 81 keV-1333 keV using a high resolution HPGe detector and six different radioactive sources. The experimental results were validated with the theoretical results and a good agreement was observed for all samples. The yttrium oxide has more shielding effectiveness for γ radiation, while magnesium silicate, aluminum nitride and silicon nitride possess least γ-ray shielding. However, the optimum neutron shielding material is ruby. © 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston 2019.